Twitter, under the ownership of Elon Musk, has implemented a temporary restriction on the number of tweets users can view per day. This measure, aimed at addressing data scraping and system manipulation, has raised concerns and may have implications for the platform’s advertising potential.
What does this restriction mean and what options exist outside of Twitter?
The changes directly affect users, as tweets can no longer be accessed without logging into the platform. Verified accounts are now limited to viewing 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts to 600 posts, and new unverified accounts to 300 posts. Once these limits are surpassed, users receive a message stating “rate limit exceeded.”
Moreover, the limitations have caused disruptions for users of TweetDeck, with reports of issues related to notifications and the loading of columns on the platform.
Musk has stated that the limits will soon increase to 10,000 for verified accounts, 1,000 for unverified accounts, and 500 for new unverified accounts.
The rationale behind this restriction, as expressed by Musk, is to combat extensive data scraping from Twitter, conducted by various entities ranging from AI companies and startups to tech giants. Musk finds it troublesome to allocate significant server resources on an emergency basis to facilitate the excessive valuation of certain AI startups.
Users have expressed their dissatisfaction with these limitations, leading to hashtags such as “#TwitterDown” and “RIP Twitter” trending on the platform in recent days.
The impact of these limits is particularly significant for accounts managed by news agencies, journalists, and monitoring services that heavily rely on reviewing thousands of tweets daily. The National Weather Service, for example, has expressed concern about its ability to access and disseminate severe weather reports via Twitter, suggesting the use of office telephone numbers as an alternative.
In light of these restrictions, alternative platforms similar to Twitter, such as Bluesky and Mastodon, have gained attention. Bluesky, initiated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and currently in beta mode, experienced record-high traffic and temporarily paused new sign-ups. Mastodon also witnessed a surge in its active user base, with an increase of 110,000 users on the day the restrictions were announced, according to its creator and CEO Eugen Rochko.
