Twitter, under the ownership of Elon Musk, has imposed temporary restrictions on the number of tweets users can read per day. In a tweet, Musk announced that unverified accounts are now limited to reading 1,000 posts daily, while new unverified accounts face a cap of 500 posts. Accounts with "verified" status are currently allowed to access up to 10,000 posts each day. Notably, these limits were initially set even stricter but were modified shortly after their announcement.
Now to 10k, 1k & 0.5k
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
Musk stated that the temporary limits were a response to the "extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation" occurring on the platform. However, he did not provide further clarification regarding the nature of system manipulation in this context. According to Musk, the decision was prompted by significant data pillaging, which adversely affected the service quality for regular users. Twitter users were prompted to log in to view content due to this move, which has been described as a "temporary emergency measure."
The exact definition of data scraping, as referred to by Musk, remains somewhat unclear. It appears to encompass the collection of large volumes of data utilized by artificial intelligence (AI) companies to train language models, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard. Data scraping involves retrieving information from the internet, and extensive real human conversations, like those found on Reddit and Twitter, are crucial for training these models successfully. Platforms like Twitter and Reddit are now seeking compensation for this valuable data.
Reddit's CEO, Steve Huffman, expressed dissatisfaction with the activities of AI companies, noting the value of Reddit's data corpus and the reluctance to provide it to major corporations free of charge. Twitter has already started charging users for access to its application programming interface (API), commonly used by third-party apps and researchers, including AI companies.
There are other potential motives behind Musk's decision. He has actively promoted Twitter Blue, the platform's subscription service. It is possible that he envisions a model in which users must pay to enjoy the full Twitter experience and gain unlimited access to posts.
Verified status, indicated by a blue tick, was previously granted for free to prominent accounts before Musk assumed control. Presently, most users must pay a monthly subscription fee starting at $8 to obtain verification, irrespective of their profile status.
According to Downdetector, a website tracking online service disruptions, approximately 7,461 individuals experienced glitches in the US.
Initially, Musk had announced reading limits of 6,000 posts per day for verified accounts, 600 for unverified accounts, and 300 for new unverified accounts. In a subsequent update, he mentioned that "several hundred organizations (maybe more)" had been aggressively scraping Twitter data. He later expressed frustration over the strain on his website, stating the necessity of bringing numerous servers online on an emergency basis.
After a series of negotiations, Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion last year. He criticized the previous management and expressed his desire to prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber. Upon assuming control, he significantly reduced the workforce from nearly 8,000 employees to approximately 1,500. The layoffs, which included engineers, raised concerns about the platform's stability. However, Musk assured the BBC in April that although some glitches occurred, the outages were brief and the site was functioning well.
