On Friday, Twitter — without notice — suddenly blocked access to the website for anyone who isn’t signed in as a registered user.
Many people were confused about the change, wondering whether it was a glitch or a purposeful move on the part of Twitter, which is under the control of mega-billionaire Elon Musk. Previously, you could search Twitter and view tweets without needing a registered account. But now, visiting any Twitter page displays a log-in prompt instead.
Musk, in a post Friday afternoon, claimed that Twitter took the step to improve performance on the platform after third-party companies were “scraping” data and overloading its systems. “Temporary emergency measure,” he tweeted. “We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!”
In another tweet, Musk said, “Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience.” He added, “What should we do to stop that? I’m open to ideas.”
Musk alleged that groups that have been data-scraping Twitter, in violation of its terms and conditions, “dgaf & mask their IPs through proxy servers or through orgs that appear legit. For example, a recent massive scraping operation originating from Oracle IP addresses was just using their servers as a laundromat.” He added, “We absolutely will take legal action against those who stole our data & look forward seeing them in court, which is (optimistically) 2 to 3 years from now.”
Musk hired Linda Yaccarino, formerly NBCU’s top advertising sales exec, as Twitter’s new CEO overseeing business operations, while Musk himself has said he will remain involved in his favorite social network to lead “product design & new technology.” Yaccarino started in the role at Twitter earlier this month, tasked with driving up advertising revenue after a precipitous decline following Musk’s takeover.
After Musk laid off about 80% of Twitter’s employees following the closing of his debt-financed $44 billion acquisition, the service has experienced some technical problems. That included a glitch-prone Twitter Spaces live audio event with Ron DeSantis, who was using the platform to officially announce his 2024 presidential campaign.
Musk claims that Twitter has never been more popular and that the company (which he’s officially renamed X Corp.) has been developing new features at an unprecedented pace. “This platform hit another all-time high in user-seconds last week,” he tweeted Friday.
