Twitter has introduced daily restrictions on the number of tweets users can read, in an attempt to curb "extreme levels" of data scraping and system manipulation. This announcement was made by Elon Musk, the Executive Chair and owner of the social media giant, via a tweet on the platform on Saturday.
The new measure initially limited verified accounts to reading 6,000 posts a day. Unverified accounts were limited to 600 posts, while new unverified accounts were capped at 300.
However, after initial backlash, these reading limits were subsequently increased to 10,000 posts per day for verified users, 1,000 posts for unverified users, and 500 posts for new unverified accounts. Musk did not specify when these restrictions would be lifted or provide further details about the change.
Now to 10k, 1k & 0.5k
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
These restrictions come after users reported encountering error messages stating "Cannot retrieve tweets." Earlier, Twitter had announced that it would require users to have an account to view tweets, a policy Musk termed a "temporary emergency measure."
Musk has previously expressed concerns about the scraping of Twitter data by hundreds of organizations, a practice he says is carried out "extremely aggressively" and negatively impacts user experience. He has particularly criticized artificial intelligence firms like OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, for using Twitter's data to train their language models.
On Saturday morning, Twitter experienced downtime for thousands of users.
Some users have already seen the message “rate limit exceeded” when trying to view tweets.
Musk acquired Twitter in October last year for $44 billion, following a period of legal disputes over the company. Since the acquisition, he has introduced Twitter Blue, a paid subscription service that verifies subscribers with a blue checkmark, replacing the old system of freely awarded verification badges. This change was implemented as part of Twitter's efforts to combat fake accounts and the spread of misinformation.
Musk, who categorizes himself as a "free speech absolutist," has voiced his ambition to evolve the social media platform into an unrestricted environment that fosters all forms of expression.
