Twitter has introduced restrictions on the number of tweets that various accounts can read per day, according to owner Elon Musk. The purpose of this move is to deter “extreme levels” of data scraping and system manipulation. The announcement of the tweet limitation policy led to a ripple effect, causing widespread disruption for Twitter users and resulting in numerous reports of problems using the platform.
Twitter’s Tweet Limitation Policy and Its Effects
Elon Musk initially stated that verified accounts would be restricted to reading 6,000 posts per day, while unverified accounts would be limited to 600 posts per day while newly unverified accounts faced an even lower limit of 300 posts per day. However, Musk later revised these limitations, raising the temporary reading limit to 10,000 posts per day for verified users, 1,000 posts per day for unverified users, and 500 posts per day for new unverified users. The exact details of these restrictions were not provided.
“Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience. Almost every company doing AI, from startups to some of the biggest corporations on Earth, was scraping vast amounts of data.” Musk said. “It is rather galling to have to bring large numbers of servers online on an emergency basis just to facilitate some AI startup’s outrageous valuation,” he added.
Twitter’s Revenue Strategy and the Appointment of a New CEO
The higher threshold of tweet limits allowed for verified accounts is part of an $8 per month subscription service introduced by Musk earlier this year aiming to increase Twitter’s revenue, which has declined significantly since Musk acquired the company and implemented cost-cutting measures, including laying off a large portion of the workforce. Advertisers have reduced their spending on Twitter, partly due to changes that allowed more offensive and controversial content, alienating a wider portion of the platform’s audience. Musk recently appointed Linda Yaccarino, a longtime NBC Universal executive, to win back advertisers, as Twitter’s CEO. This strategic move aims to address the decline in advertising revenue and revitalize the platform’s appeal to advertisers.
Also read: Elon Musk Hires NBC’s Linda Yaccarino as the New CEO of Twitter
