Last Update: July 04, 2023, 01:41 AM IST
United States of America, USA)
Elon Musk said that this is a temporary emergency measure.
The limit, imposed to “address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation”, is the latest change by Twitter
Elon Musk’s Twitter has imposed a temporary limit on the number of tweets users can see each day, a move that has drawn some backlash and could undermine the social network’s efforts to attract advertisers .
The limit, imposed to “address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation”, is the latest change by Twitter, which Musk acquired last year for $44 billion.
What does the latest change mean and what are Twitter’s alternatives?
How do the changes affect users?
Users cannot view tweets without logging in to the platform. Verified accounts can now read 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts 600 posts and new non-verified accounts 300 posts. After that, users will get a message that reads, “rate limit exceeded”.
Musk has said that the limit will “soon” increase to 10,000 for verified, 1,000 for unverified, and 500 for newly unverified.
He has been pushing to make Twitter’s revamped verified service more attractive. Musk made Twitter Verified – special badges previously awarded to notable profiles – a paid membership and introduced tiers such as grey, blue and gold badges.
Why did Musk impose the limit?
Musk said the limit would help almost everyone from AI companies and startups to tech giants deal with the massive amounts of data scraped from Twitter.
“Bringing a large number of servers online on an emergency basis just to facilitate the outrageous valuations of a few AI startups is painful enough,” he said in a tweet.
The technology behind generative AI tools like ChatGPT is trained on vast amounts of data culled from the internet to help generate everything from poems to illustrations.
What are users saying?
Several Twitter users complained, with “#TwitterDown” and “RIP Twitter” trending on the social network website over the past few days.
The limits particularly affect accounts run by information agencies, journalists and monitoring services because they rely on reviewing thousands of tweets every day.
The National Weather Service said it may be unable to see tweeted reports of severe weather and related damage, and asked customers to use their office telephone numbers instead.
what are the options?
Platforms like Twitter like BlueSky and Mastodon are the main options. They saw an increase in users and activity shortly after Musk announced the limits.
BlueSky, which was launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and is now in beta mode, said it saw “record high traffic” on Saturday and was temporarily pausing new sign-ups.
Its creator and CEO, Eugen Rochko, said that day saw an increase of 110,000 in Mastodon’s active user base.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – reuters,