Twitter has introduced a new policy mandating users to possess an account on the platform in order to view tweets. Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, referred to this measure as a “temporary emergency measure” during his announcement on Friday.
Whenever users attempt to access content on Twitter, they will be prompted to either create a new account or log in to an existing one in order to gain access to their desired tweets.
In a tweet, Musk explained that the implementation was necessitated by the substantial amount of data being exploited, which was negatively impacting the service quality for regular users. He further stated that numerous organizations were aggressively extracting data from Twitter, thereby affecting the overall user experience.
Musk had previously expressed his dissatisfaction with artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI, the entity behind ChatGPT, utilizing Twitter’s data to train their advanced language models. He vowed to pursue legal action against those who had stolen their data and anticipated a court hearing within the next 2 to 3 years, albeit optimistically.
In May, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, requesting an audit of the tech giant’s utilization of Twitter’s content. The letter alleged that Microsoft had violated an agreement concerning the usage of the social media platform’s data.
To attract advertisers who departed the platform during Musk’s tenure and augment subscription revenue, Twitter has introduced various measures. One of these includes incorporating verification checkmarks into the Twitter Blue program. Additionally, Twitter has announced plans to concentrate on video, creator, and commerce partnerships, aiming to revitalize the company’s business beyond digital advertising.