Twitter owner Elon Musk made an abrupt announcement Saturday morning: the social media service has instituted a “temporary limit” on the amount of posts that users can read. Verified accounts that have paid for a Twitter Blue subscription can view 8000 posts per day, while unverified accounts — the vast majority of Twitter users — may only view 800 posts per day.
Newly registered unverified accounts get even less at 400 per day, though Musk did not specify how old an account must be to qualify for that tier.
When the update was first announced, post viewing was limited to 6000, 600 and 300, respectively across those same categories of users.
Musk explains that the guardrails have been created “to address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation.” The announcement come a day after Twitter’s Friday action to block access to the website for anyone who isn’t signed in as a registered user.
“Temporary emergency measure. We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!” Musk wrote on Friday afternoon. He also claimed that “several hundred organizations” were scraping Twitter data more aggressively, impacting user experience.
“What should we do to stop that? I’m open to ideas,” Musk posited. This new daily limit to readable posts seems to be one of those ideas.
It remains unclear how long these “temporary” limitations will be enforced.
These recent announcements are the latest tumultuous developments in the multi-billionaire’s venture with the social media site, after announcing his bid to purchase Twitter in April 2022 before officially acquiring it in Oct. 2022.
Musk appointed Linda Yaccarino, NBCU’s former top advertising sales exec, as Twitter’s new CEO in early June. Through her new role, Yaccarino oversees business operations with a goal of driving up advertising revenue. In addition to changing leadership, Musk laid off around 80% of Twitter’s employees since taking over the site. He has since shared that he would attempt to rehire some of those employees after the platform has faced technical issues, including the poor execution of a Twitter Spaces live audio event with Ron DeSantis, who used the occasion to announce his 2024 presidential campaign.
