Twitter CEO defends tweet-reading limit. Here’s what she said about the controversial move

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino took to the platform Tuesday to defend the recent temporary cap on the number of tweets users can read in a day. The move, announced on July 1 by owner Elon Musk, received significant criticism from users and marketing professionals. 

Yaccarino tweeted that “big moves” are necessary to strengthen the platform, emphasising Twitter’s mission. This was her first public comment regarding the limitations, which Musk implemented to discourage excessive data scraping and system manipulation. “When you have a mission like Twitter — you need to make big moves to keep strengthening the platform,” Yaccarino said in the tweet. 

Since the announcement, Twitter users have shared screenshots demonstrating their inability to view any tweets, including those of corporate advertisers, once they hit the limit. Marketing professionals expressed concerns that this limitation could undermine Yaccarino’s efforts to attract advertisers to the platform.

According to a tweet by Elon Musk on Saturday, verified Twitter accounts were restricted to reading 6,000 posts per day, while unverified accounts had a limit of 600 posts per day. Additionally, 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 suspected playful remark regarding the uproar on Twitter, Musk stated that the rate limits were imposed due to the extensive reading of posts about rate limits. Notably, less than an hour later, Musk posted another tweet raising the limits to 10,000 for verified, 1,000 for unverified and 500 for new unverified users.

Twitter’s response 

Twitter addressed the concerns, stating that only a small percentage of users have been affected by the limitations. The company further explained that these extreme measures are necessary to combat spam and bots, ensuring the authenticity of the user base. 

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In a blog post, Twitter reiterated its commitment to maintaining a secure and reliable platform. “Currently, the restrictions affect a small percentage of people using the platform, and we will provide an update when the work is complete,” the blog post said regarding the reading limits. 

New competition from Meta 

Meta Platforms (formerly known as Facebook) announced its plans to launch a microblogging app called Threads. This direct challenge to Twitter comes after Elon Musk acquired the company for $44 billion in 2022. The move highlights the intensified competition in the social media space.