Users have already shown that they don’t like the “temporary” limits.
Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, said on Saturday that users would only be able to see a maximum of 8,000 posts per day. He said this would stop “data scraping and system manipulation.”
Musk’s news came hours after Twitter users worldwide couldn’t see their timelines or read comments under tweets.
Musk wrote, “To stop extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation, we’ve put in place the following temporary limits:” Verified accounts can only read 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts can only read 600 posts per day, and new unverified accounts can only read 300 posts per day.
Shortly after that, Musk made an update saying that the limits would be raised to 8,000, 800, and 400, respectively. He didn’t say how long the “temporary” restrictions would last.
Since he bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, Musk has often promised to stop companies like data-mining firms from using the platform in ways that aren’t meant for people. Anyone without an account can’t see Twitter as of Friday. Musk said this was because “several hundred (or more) organisations were scraping Twitter data very aggressively, to the point where it was hurting the real user experience.”
At the same time, Musk has been telling users to pay $8 monthly for proof. Users don’t like having ten times as many tweets, though. As of Saturday evening in the US, “#RIPTwitter” and “Goodbye Twitter” were popular topics.
Edward Snowden, an American who leaked information about the government, said that he could no longer use Twitter well because, for security reasons, he often looks at it without logging in. Other Twitter users who follow breaking news stories, like updates on the war in Ukraine, have said that even when verified, they use up all their tweets in just a few hours.
It’s still unclear if Musk will stick to the new rules. Shortly after buying Twitter last year, the billionaire said he would end up doing “lots of dumb things” to try to change it but that he would “keep what works and change what doesn’t.”
