Popular social media platform, Twitter, faced widespread outages over the weekend. In response, Elon Musk, the influential figure behind Tesla and SpaceX, revealed the reason behind the disruption, Your Content has learned.
Musk introduced a new policy that imposes restrictions on nonpaying customers, limiting their daily tweet count.
The problem faced by Twitter users was the inability to view new tweets, engage with trends, or refresh their main feed.
The error message displayed was “Rate Limit Exceeded.” While many speculated that the issue stemmed from server capacity problems or a glitch, Elon Musk clarified the situation.
Musk explained that the temporary limits were implemented to address concerns related to data scraping and system manipulation.
According to the new policy, verified accounts can read up to 6,000 posts per day, while unverified accounts are limited to 600 posts per day.
Additionally, new unverified accounts can only access 300 posts daily.
In a lighthearted manner, Musk joked about users hitting their rate limits by reading tweets discussing the rate limits being exceeded.
However, he quickly changed his stance and announced a slight increase in the tweet count for all user categories. Verified users will soon have a daily limit of 8,000 tweets, unverified users 800, and new unverified users 400.
The introduction of these restrictions has sparked significant backlash from Twitter users, who perceive it as a move to encourage sign-ups for Twitter Blue, the platform’s subscription service that offers verification at a cost of $8 per month.
Despite the company’s efforts to attract customers to Twitter Blue since its launch, the response has been underwhelming.
This development follows recent news of Twitter’s diminished valuation, dropping by at least one-third since Elon Musk’s takeover.
While Musk initially acquired the platform for $44 billion, it is now estimated to be worth between $8 and $15 billion.
Musk has been vocal about the economic challenges faced by Twitter, including the need for new advertisers and revenue streams.
By enforcing these tweet limits, Musk has cornered his user base, prompting some Twitter users to explore alternative platforms.
The hashtag
has gained traction, highlighting the discontent among users.
This move appears to be part of a larger strategy to drive adoption of Twitter Blue and generate additional revenue for the platform.
The implications of Elon Musk’s actions have ignited debates on the future of Twitter, as users weigh their options and consider the consequences of these changes, according to TMZ.