Twitter Reading Limit Policy: What Is Changing And How Will It Affect Users

According to Musk, the aim of these restrictions is to address the issue of widespread data scraping by numerous organisations. However, the move has ignited debate surrounding openness of platform.

Elon Musk wrote, "To address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits."

Source : Getty

Tech billionaire Elon Musk announced a cap on the number of tweets users can read per day on the micro-blogging platform, over the weekend. Initially, the limit was 6,000 posts for verified users and 600 for unverified users. However, Musk revised these limits to 10,000 and 1,000 tweets, respectively. According to Musk, the aim behind imposing these restrictions is to address the issue of widespread data scraping by numerous organisations. However, the move has ignited a heated debate surrounding the openness of the platform.

Let us try to understand what these "reading limits" and what does it mean for Twitter users. 

Musk's Announcement Of Cap On Number Of Tweets Users Can Read And Twitter Outage

Following backend changes that caused disruptions on Twitter, CEO Musk announced a temporary limit on how many tweets a user can read on the micro-blogging site, to combat data scraping and system manipulation. In a tweet,  Musk wrote: "To address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits."

Later the limit was exceeded to 10,000 and 1,000 respectively, Musk tweeted. 

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

The move came amidst a global outage on Twitter, affecting millions of users worldwide, including those in India. According to the outage monitoring website Downdetector, more than 7,000 users reported issues with accessing Twitter. Recently, Twitter has also taken the step of disabling browsing access for users without accounts on its web platform.

"We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users," Musk explained on Friday, after users were presented with screens asking them to log in to view Twitter content.

Temporary emergency measure. We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 30, 2023

Musk emphasised that numerous artificial intelligence (AI) companies, including both startups and major corporations, have been actively involved in extensive data scraping practices. Although Musk did not mention any specific company. 

What Does Reading Limit Means For Twitter Users? 

The implementation of temporary reading limit will have a significant impact on the social media landscape, bringing about substantial changes for users. With the new restrictions, users, especially those without verified accounts, will experience limitations on their ability to read posts on the platform. Verified accounts will be allowed to read up to 10,000 posts per day, while unverified accounts will be limited to 1,000 posts. Additionally, new unverified accounts will face even stricter restrictions, with a limit of only 500 posts per day.

Many users have already faced such issues, and several have tweeted about facing the “Rate limit exceeded. Please wait a few moments then try again” message.

In an effort to generate more revenue for Twitter, Musk has been implementing changes to the platform's policy regarding the use of its API, which serves as a communication system with other services. He has expressed his dissatisfaction with third-party clients, particularly artificial intelligence firms, using Twitter's data to train their AI models.

As part of this revenue-generation strategy, Twitter has been reducing its support for the free API, effectively eliminating third-party services that rely on it. This move has had implications for various companies and developers who previously relied on Twitter's API for sharing content to and from the platform, resulting in functionality breaks for apps and websites like WordPress and Echobox.

It appears that the changes made by Musk and Twitter's shift in API policy are aimed at monetising the platform's data and increasing control over how it is accessed and used. 

Not The Only Issue Twitter Is Facing 

Twitter on Tuesday announced that users will soon need to be verified to use TweetDeck, a popular tool for managing and organizing Twitter feeds. The change is set to take effect in 30 days. This announcement came amidst ongoing issues faced by TweetDeck users, including problems with notifications and columns failing to load.

Twitter made the announcement about the new version of TweetDeck in a tweet, highlighting its improved features. It remains unclear whether Twitter will charge users for both the new and old versions of TweetDeck. In their tweet, Twitter provided instructions for accessing the new version of TweetDeck, allowing users to continue accessing their saved searches and workflows.

We have just launched a new, improved version of TweetDeck. All users can continue to access their saved searches & workflows via https://t.co/2WwL3hNVR2 by selecting “Try the new TweetDeck” in the bottom left menu.

Some notes on getting started and the future of the product…

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 3, 2023

However, as per a Financial Express report, Web developer Sheldon Chang discovered a bug in Twitter's web app that was causing it to send requests to itself in an infinite loop, a situation he referred to as Twitter "DDOSing itself." The bug resulted in numerous requests being sent per second, even though no content was loading. It remains unclear whether this bug is directly related to Twitter's decision to block unregistered access and impose rate limits.

Yoel Roth, a former head of trust and safety at Twitter, expressed his belief that such issues have occurred before due to mismanagement of rate limit controls. He highlighted the potential consequences of tinkering with these limits, as it can lead to breaking the platform's functionality.

As per the report, while Twitter has attributed rate limit measures to an emergency situation, the underlying cause could potentially be a bug in the platform's JavaScript or an unrelated issue such as payment defaults.