Elon Musk changes Twitter forever, slaps limits on number of tweets you can read

Elon Musk has announced significant alterations to how users consume content on Twitter.

Elon Musk implements tweet reading limits on Twitter to combat data scraping and manipulation. (AP)

Elon Musk has announced significant alterations to how users consume content on the platform. Musk took to the social media site on Saturday evening to reveal temporary limits on the number of posts users can read in a day, aiming to curb data scraping and system manipulation.

Under the new restrictions, verified accounts will be allowed to read up to 6,000 tweets per day, while unverified accounts will be limited to 600 tweets. New accounts will face even stricter constraints, with a daily limit of 300 tweets. Also, if anyone wants to see a tweet, he will have to login. Musk, on the other hand, promised that these restrictions would be gradually increased to 8,000 for verified accounts, 800 for unverified ones, and 400 for new unverified accounts.

Musk's decision came as a response to rampant data scraping and system manipulation observed on the platform.

Notably, on the same day, the attention from this was stolen by a Twitter outage that caused many users to troll Musk. The outage affected tens of thousands of users. Many were unable to access Twitter.

Outage monitor website Down Detector reported over 7,000 complaints about the Twitter downtime, with some users playfully urging Elon Musk to fix his "$44 billion app." Others humorously expressed their frustration with error messages like "rate limit exceeded."

Earlier on the same day, Twitter had taken the drastic step of restricting browsing access for users without accounts. Musk explained that this action was necessary due to the excessive data scraping, which significantly degraded the platform's service for regular users. He expressed dissatisfaction with having to deploy numerous servers on an emergency basis to cater to the needs of certain AI startups with inflated valuations.

While Twitter's decision to protect its data from being freely taken was understandable, critics argued that the move could have potential drawbacks. They raised concerns about reduced reach and exposure from external links/embeds, as well as privacy implications. Users hoped that a better long-term solution could be devised to address these issues without hindering user experience.

Why Musk did it

One of Musk's primary goals with the new post reading limits is to prevent AI tools from exploiting the platform. By imposing these restrictions, he aims to safeguard Twitter's data while ensuring a fair and equitable experience for all users.