Elon Musk has explained the reason behind the mass outages experienced by Twitter users over the weekend. In an attempt to control “extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation,” the tech billionaire and Twitter executive has enforced a daily tweet limit on all users.
Users across the platform experienced issues on Saturday, unable to refresh their feed or view new tweets. Many assumed a server capacity issue or glitch was the cause. However, Musk set the record straight by stating that verified accounts are now limited to viewing 6000 posts per day, unverified accounts 600, and new unverified accounts to just 300.
To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits:
– Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day
– Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day
– New unverified accounts to 300/day— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
In response to backlash, Musk adjusted the policy, promising to increase daily tweet counts for verified users to 8000, unverified users to 800, and new unverified users to 400. Nonetheless, this hard cap on tweet viewing has incited much pushback from the Twitter community.
This new move seems to be an attempt to encourage users to sign up for Twitter Blue, a premium, paid service. This comes after the recent news that Twitter’s valuation fell by a third following Musk’s takeover. Originally purchased for $44 billion, Twitter is now reportedly worth between $8 and $15 billion.
Many Twitter users are now exploring other social media platforms, while the hashtag “death of Twitter” has begun trending in the wake of Musk’s policy enforcement.
