Elon Musk Under Fire For Imposing Twitter Cap That Limits Users To Viewing Less Than 10,000 Tweets/Day: ‘RIP’

July 2, 2023 by Kay Johnson in Latest News with 0 Comments

Elon Musk

Elon Musk Under Fire For Imposing Twitter Cap That Limits The Amount Of Tweets A User Can Read Per Day: ‘RIP’

Safe to say Twitter users are once again not happy with its current owner.

Months after stepping down as CEO, billionaire businessman Elon Musk is facing heavy criticism after the social media platform implemented a “temporary” restriction, limiting the amount of tweets a user can read per day.

Reportedly, Elon Musk attributed the change to trying to keep the website safe from “AI scrappers” and “system manipulation”. In a tweet announcing the decision on July 1st, he wrote:

“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”

In a subsequent (now deleted) tweet, he added:

“The rate limit was implemented because we had no other option. It was either, (1) let competitors have access to Twitters data or (2) somehow stop them. We had no their choice, this was last resort, but remember, it’s only temporary. Normal Twitter will return soon”

The numbers have since been updated to 10,000/1,000/500 respectively. Despite his reassurance that the decision is ephemeral, however, many have called into question the sincerity of Musk’s explanation. One report offered a few alternative theories, with one speculating it could be an effort to drive Twitter blue subscriptions.

As we reported back in April, the Space X founder was in the hot seat after announcing the platform was moving to a subscription based structure where blue checks would only be given to those who subscribe to the service monthly. If you recall many big name celebs, such as Oprah, Lebron James, and Kim Kardashian all initially lost their verifications. Many have since gotten their accounts certified once again, however, seemingly suggesting that Musk’s method could be a success.

As for non famous users, it seems some are beginning to lose faith that platform will ever be “normal” again. Internet users gave their disapproving opinions of the daily limitations, with many suggesting Twitter just might be at its end.

The uproar was so great, that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey stepped in to seemingly defend Musk. Dorsey sold the company to his fellow businessman, but has expressed concern over the way the platform is being ran. This mostly being due to Musk coming in and immediately laying off a significant portion of the staff, causing widespread panic about the platforms future. Speaking on the recent limitation, however, Dorsey wrote:

“Running Twitter is hard. I don’t wish that stress upon anyone. I trust that the team is doing their best under the constraints they have, which are immense. It’s easy to critique the decisions from afar…which I’m guilty of…but I know the goal is to see Twitter thrive. It will.”

While Musk has repeatedly stated the decision is temporary, there has been no concrete date on when users can expect the limitation to be lifted. In the meantime, the Tesla CEO did offer some suggestions on what people can do when they see their rate has been exceed.