Elon Musk imposed strict Twitter payment limits on Saturday, restricting how many tweets users can view in a day.
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The Tesla (D.S.L.A) CEO, who paid $44 billion for Twitter last year, said it imposed “temporary limits” due to “excessive data scraping and computer manipulation.”
What is Twitter ‘Rate Limiting’?
Twitter users receiving this message have reached a limit on how many tweets they can read or scroll through.
Initially, Musk said verified accounts could read 6,000 posts per day, while unverified accounts could read 600 posts daily and the new unverified accounts just 300. By Saturday afternoon, Musk said the 8,000 posts per day for verified accounts would increase to 800. for unverified accounts and 400 for new unverified accounts.
Musk did not specify when the limits would end.
These restrictions caused significant frustration and surprise among Twitter users. They suddenly get messages like “Rate limit exceeded” or “Something went wrong. Try reloading”.
Even verified users don’t have long to hit payment limits while scrolling through tweets and replies. Users can tweet themselves, often complaining about the new restrictions, but other users may not be able to read those posts.
On Friday, Elon Musk said artificial intelligence companies are scrapping the platform for data to train chatbots for free. “Almost every company doing AI, from startups to some of the biggest companies on Earth, is churning out vast amounts of data,” he tweeted on Friday.
Twitter has significantly raised prices for its application programming interface, or API, which allows third parties to analyze some Twitter data and build tools with it.
Since taking over Twitter last fall, Musk has cut staff to cut costs, but ad revenue has fallen. He tried to increase subscription revenue, but the $8-a-month Twitter Blue Signatures were nowhere near making up for the gap in ad sales.
Elon Musk recently appointed Linda Yaccarino as CEO of Twitter. He was head of advertising sales for NBCUniversal.
Cathie Wood Stock is expected to deliver 772% EPS gain. This is flashing a buy signal.
Can you get a Twitter payment limit?
Some services, such as Tweet Deck and Hootsuite, offer a way to sidestep Twitter payment limits for now. Such services allow users to create different columns for their Twitter timelines (and often other social platforms), as well as lists, direct messages, notifications, and keyword searches.
Follow Ed Carson on Twitter @IBD_ECarson For stock market updates and more.
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