Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently announced on Twitter that the platform will now have “temporary limits” on the number of tweets users can see in a day. This change comes in response to thousands of users reporting issues with their accounts, receiving notifications that their “rate limit exceeded.”
Under the new limitations, verified users who subscribe to Twitter Blue will be able to view up to 6,000 tweets per day, while unverified accounts will be limited to 600 tweets a day. For new and unverified accounts, the limit decreases even further to 300 tweets a day. However, it is still unclear how Twitter defines a “new” account.
Following his initial announcement, Musk provided an update stating that the rate limits will soon increase to 8,000 tweets per day for verified users, 800 for unverified users, and 400 for new, unverified users. Musk explained that these limitations are being implemented to address “extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation.”
This change comes after Twitter introduced a temporary emergency measure on Friday, which restricted access to the platform unless users were logged into an account. Musk clarified that this measure was necessary because the platform was experiencing a significant amount of data pilfering, leading to a degradation of service for normal users.
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Further elaborating on the issue, Musk mentioned that several hundred organizations were aggressively scraping Twitter data to the point where it was negatively impacting the user experience. He expressed openness to ideas on how to stop this activity, but the duration of both the rate limits and the access restriction measures remains uncertain.
In May, Musk also announced that Linda Yaccarino would be assuming the role of Twitter’s CEO while he transitioned to being the executive chair and chief technology officer, overseeing product, software, and sysops. Musk emphasized that Yaccarino would focus primarily on business operations, while he would concentrate on product design and new technology. He expressed excitement about working with Yaccarino to transform the platform into an “everything app” called X.
The implementation of temporary rate limits and access restrictions highlights Twitter’s efforts to combat data scraping and system manipulation on their platform. By introducing these measures and seeking ways to mitigate these issues, Musk and his team are demonstrating their commitment to improving the user experience and protecting user data.
It will be interesting to see how these temporary measures evolve and whether Twitter will implement additional long-term solutions to address these ongoing challenges. As the platform continues to evolve under Yaccarino’s leadership, there may be further developments aimed at enhancing security, promoting user engagement, and ensuring a positive experience for all users.
