Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, announced restrictions on the number of posts users can read daily due to concerns about data scraping and system manipulation[1]. The tech mogul’s latest attempt to thwart these issues involved imposing rate limits on users, an unconventional step that has sparked discussion among social media enthusiasts and AI communities alike.
The new rules initially allowed verified accounts to access up to 8,000 posts per day, unverified accounts 800, and new unverified accounts 400[3]. Musk later revised these limits to 10,000 posts per day for verified users, 1,000 for unverified users, and 500 for new unverified users[1]. The decision is a response to potential system exploitation through data scraping, a practice prevalent among AI firms.
Musk, who previously criticized companies like OpenAI for leveraging Twitter data for AI language model training, views these limitations as necessary for the time being[1]. His stringent stance comes on the heels of a wider debate about data privacy and the ethics of digital information extraction.
Meanwhile, this new policy coincided with an outage on Twitter that left thousands of users unable to access or post content, compounding the platform’s woes[3]. It’s not clear whether these limitations are related to the outage or if they represent two separate issues plaguing the social media giant.
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Musk’s move to limit account activity has been met with mixed reactions. Some view it as a positive step towards better platform integrity, while others see it as a further decline in Twitter’s reputation, already tarnished by previous controversial decisions and operational blunders under Musk’s leadership[2]. In response to growing concerns, Twitter is investing in strategies to regain advertisers’ trust and attract subscription revenue. These measures include hiring a new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, and integrating verification check marks into the Twitter Blue program[1].
Whether these rate limits and other interventions will secure Twitter’s future or push it further towards collapse remains to be seen. One thing is clear, however: As Twitter grapples with these issues, the conversation about the ethical use of data, particularly in AI, will only intensify. Stay tuned for more updates on this rapidly evolving story.