Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino took to Twitter on Tuesday to defend the recent temporary limitation on the number of tweets users can read in a day. The decision, announced by owner Elon Musk on July 1, faced significant criticism from users and marketing professionals.
Yaccarino stated in a tweet that “big moves” are necessary to strengthen the platform and reiterated Twitter’s mission. This was her first public comment on the limitations, which Musk implemented to discourage excessive data scraping and system manipulation. Yaccarino emphasized the need for significant actions to enhance the platform’s capabilities.
Following the announcement, Twitter users shared screenshots showing their inability to view any tweets, including those from corporate advertisers, once they reached the limit. Marketing professionals expressed concerns that this restriction could undermine Yaccarino’s efforts to attract advertisers to the platform.
According to a tweet from Elon Musk on Saturday, verified Twitter accounts were limited to reading 6,000 posts per day, while unverified accounts had a limit of 600 posts. New and unverified accounts faced an even lower limit of 300 posts.
However, approximately two hours later, Musk tweeted again, announcing that the rate limits would soon increase to 8,000 for verified accounts, 800 for unverified accounts, and 400 for new unverified accounts. In a seemingly playful remark regarding the Twitter uproar, Musk mentioned that the rate limits were imposed due to the extensive reading of posts about rate limits. Less than an hour later, Musk posted another tweet raising the limits to 10,000 for verified users, 1,000 for unverified users, and 500 for new unverified users.
Twitter responded to the concerns, stating that only a small percentage of users were affected by the limitations. The company explained that these extreme measures were necessary to combat spam and bots, ensuring the authenticity of the user base.
In a blog post, Twitter reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining a secure and reliable platform. The post mentioned that the limitations currently impact a small percentage of users and promised to provide an update when the work is complete.
Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) announced its plans to launch a microblogging app called Threads, directly challenging Twitter. This move comes after Elon Musk acquired the company for $44 billion in 2022, highlighting the increased competition in the social media landscape.
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