Twitter's new daily tweet viewing limit is a slippery slope
The recent series of events surrounding Twitter has ignited a growing concern among its user base and industry observers alike. One that has once again raised questions about the platform's long-term viability and whether it is on the brink of demise.
According to CEO Elon Musk in a tweet on Saturday, Twitter Blue verified users now have a daily browsing limit of 6,000 posts, while unverified users face a significantly reduced limit of 600 posts. Meanwhile, newly registered, unverified users are subject to only 300 posts per day. According to the billionaire, the measure was taken to address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation faced by Twitter.
This announcement followed one of the many technical hiccups that Twitter has grappled with in recent months on Saturday, which left many users unable to refresh home feeds and comment threads.
Hours later, Elon Musk adjusted the limit a notch higher to 10,000, 1,000, and 500 posts, respectively.
To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
- Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day
- Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day
- New unverified accounts to 300/day
With the implementation of restrictive view limits and the emergence of potential competitors, Twitter finds itself on a slippery slope.
Users have started exploring alternative social media platforms such as Truth Social (owned by former U.S. President, Donald Trump), Bluesky (led by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey), and Spill (owned by ex-Twitter employees) at some point, shutting down their severs due to overwhelming traffic. Not to mention India's Koo App.
Data from Dewey Square Group reveals a consistent decrease in users, with a notable 7.7% decline in traffic in March compared to the previous year. Amidst all of this, Meta (Facebook owner) is also already testing its Twitter rival microblogging platform.
To make matters worse, these view limits come at a time when Twitter is working to repair its damaged relationships with advertisers. After Tesla CEO Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, many advertisers pulled away from the platform. Now, with the inability to reach its target audience effectively, advertisers are once again questioning the effectiveness of advertising on Twitter.
