Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, recently announced that Twitter users will now face restrictions on the number of posts they can read in a day. Musk cited “extreme levels of data scraping” and “system manipulation” as the reasons behind this decision. Although the limits are not permanent, verified accounts will be allowed to read up to 8,000 posts per day, while unverified accounts will have a limit of 800 posts per day. New unverified accounts will be restricted to reading 400 posts daily. While Musk did not provide a specific timeframe for when these restrictions will be lifted, he did increase the limits from the rates he initially set earlier on Saturday.
Twitter Outage Intensifies as Users Encounter Access Problems
Coinciding with Musk’s announcement, Twitter experienced a widespread outage, causing numerous users to encounter difficulties accessing the platform. This outage marks one of many since Musk acquired the social media site late last year. Users trying to access or post content on Twitter’s website or mobile app were met with error messages such as “Rate limit exceeded” or “Cannot retrieve tweets.” The website Downdetector reported that over 7,300 individuals had issues with Twitter as of 11 a.m. ET. Despite CNBC’s request for comment, Twitter only provided an automated response, leaving the cause of the outage unclear. It remains uncertain if the outage is related to Twitter’s new limited-reading policy.
In addition to the access problems, Twitter has also restricted content that was previously available to users without an account. Previously, individuals could view public profiles and tweets without logging in, but now they are immediately prompted to create an account. Musk explained that this “drastic and immediate action” was necessary due to the “EXTREME” levels of data scraping. Although he promised that the restrictions would be lifted soon, the content remained restricted as of Saturday afternoon.
This recent outage is not the first time Twitter has faced technical difficulties in recent months. In February, users were unable to post on the site for approximately 90 minutes, receiving a message indicating they had reached their daily tweet limit. In March, users encountered temporary issues with clicking on links or loading images. These outages occurred alongside reports of a data center closure and significant layoffs at Twitter. Musk claimed that these measures were necessary for the company’s financial health.
As of now, it remains unclear when Twitter will resolve the issues causing the outage on Saturday. Users will have to wait for further updates from the platform to determine when access will be fully restored.
Leave a Reply