A few users got a ‘Rate limit exceeded’ shown on their timeline for many hours on July 1. As twitter being down made headlines all over, Elon Musk, the ceo of twitter posted some updates, that have not sit right with many users. In the clarification, he stated that he wants users to spend more time with their friends and family, and not on the social media platform. Yes, you heard that right.
Elon Musk initially made a tweet where he addressed the issue of excessive data scraping and system manipulation. In his tweet, he mentioned that temporary limits had been implemented. According to Musk, verified accounts were restricted to reading 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts were limited to 600 posts per day, and new unverified accounts were limited to 300 posts per day.
Later on, Musk humorously commented on his own actions by posting that rate is limited due to reading all the posts about rate limits.
With users expressing dissatisfaction, the social media mogul posted an update Rate limits increasing soon to 8000 for verified, 800 for unverified & 400 for new unverified. And on further dissatisfaction, he raised the limit with another post, stating Now to 10k, 1k & 0.5k.
The updates from Musk, along with his sarcastic take on the issue, have been extensively shared on various timelines. In a tweet, he stated that the reason behind implementing a “View Limit” was because he believed people were addicted to Twitter and needed to spend more time outdoors. Musk claimed that he was performing a positive act for the world and added that each view utilized was another opportunity to make a difference.
Leaving twitter addicts on more distress, he posted an indirect tweet “you awake from a deep trance, step away from the phone to see your friends & family.”
With this move, the social media platform is likely to reset the tweet read meter every 24 hours, after the daily quota is exhausted. Many users have said that it’s a good time to find alternatives to the platform, and not rely on just this.