The reason behind Twitter’s tweet reading limits: Elon Musk can’t pay bills, is cutting costs

Elon Musk can’t pay, or rather is not willing to pay a lot of the bills that running Twitter accrues. That may be one of the reasons why Twitter has set a limit on reading tweets, and why he wants only Twitter Blue users to have access to TweetDeck

Recently, Twitter, owned by Elon Musk, implemented a rate limit for its users, causing considerable backlash from internet users. This rate limit places restrictions on the number of tweets that users can view within a single day.

According to the new changes, verified accounts retain the ability to access thousands of tweets, while unverified accounts are limited to only a few hundred.

The Backlash from Tweet limits
As a result, many Twitter users expressed their dissatisfaction with the platform, and some even began exploring alternative options.

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So severe has been the backlash that many industry experts have raised concerns over Linda Yaccarino being just a figurehead as Twitter’s CEO and that Musk is till calling the shots at Twitter, even when it comes to policies. Yaccarino coming in to defend Musk’s decision, seems to further bolster this perception.

Elon Musk addressed the issue on Twitter, stating that the extreme measure was taken to combat “extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation.” He outlined the temporary limits: verified accounts can read up to 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts are limited to 600 posts per day, and new unverified accounts are restricted to 300 posts per day.

The real reason why Twitter had to limit reads
However, a former Twitter employee contradicted Musk’s explanation, claiming that the rate limit had nothing to do with data scraping and was actually a financial decision. Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, a data scientist who worked for Twitter until November 2022, stated in an interview with the BBC that Twitter imposed the rate limit due to unpaid bills.

Dr. Chowdhury expressed her belief that the motive behind the rate limit was Musk’s failure to pay his bills, suggesting that he was attempting to reduce costs. She further described the measure as a “very extreme and unprecedented tactic” that was already proving unsuccessful.

“Frankly, I think I’m in a majority of people who believe that it’s due to his (Elon Musk) lack of payment of his bills, and he’s attempting to reduce his costs,” she told BBC.

Twitter’s Google fallout led to issues
According to a Reuters report initially attributed to Platformer last month, Twitter had refused to pay its Google Cloud bills as its contract renewal date with Google approached on June 30 of this year. The report suggested that this could potentially impact the functionality of Twitter’s trust and safety teams.

Prior to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October of the previous year, the company had signed a multi-year contract with Google, focusing on combating spam and protecting user accounts, among other objectives. However, under Musk’s leadership, Twitter has shown reluctance in fulfilling its financial obligations regarding the Google Cloud bills. The fact that users experienced errors with the app just one day after the contract expired, raises concerns.

Furthermore, an earlier report by The Information revealed that Twitter had been attempting to renegotiate its contract with Google since March of this year.

Twitter defends limiting reads
Twitter recently published a blog post explaining the reasons behind the implementation of the rate limit. The post stated that the company had taken “extreme measures” to combat spam and bots on the platform. The blog post highlighted two main objectives: preventing the scraping of public Twitter data for AI model development and curbing manipulative activities that affect people and conversations on the platform.

The post also mentioned that the impact on advertising has been minimal. The Twitter team expressed their ongoing commitment to improving the platform for everyone and emphasized the need to slow down temporarily in order to speed up progress.

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino shared the blog post, stating that significant actions are sometimes necessary to strengthen a platform.