Twitter owner Elon Musk announced a temporary limit on the number of tweets users can tweet in a day – a recent move that has drawn significant criticism. However, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino took to the platform on Tuesday to defend the decision and address concerns raised by users and marketing professionals.
The ban, which took effect on July 1, limited most users to reading only 600 tweets per day. However, this limit proved to be a mere inconvenience for many users, as they hit the cap within an hour or less. Screenshots shared on Twitter showed frustrated users unable to see any tweets, including tweets from corporate advertisers. The development has raised concerns among marketing professionals, who fear it could hurt Yaccarino’s efforts to attract advertisers to the platform.
Yaccarino, in his first public comments on the matter, stressed the need for “big steps” to strengthen the platform and uphold Twitter’s mission. “When you have a mission like Twitter — you need to take big steps to strengthen the platform,” he said. Yaccarino’s support for tweet limits is in line with Musk’s intention to prevent excessive data scraping and system manipulation on the platform.
When you have a mission like Twitter — you need to make big moves to keep strengthening the platform. This work is meaningful and on-going. Here’s more insight on our work to ensure the authenticity of our user base. 👇 https://t.co/5FzBa3636Z
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 4, 2023
Twitter defended the temporary limit, saying only a small percentage of users were affected by the limits. The company explained that these steps are necessary to combat spam and bot activity, ensuring the authenticity of the user base. In a blog post, Twitter said, “To ensure the integrity of our user base, we must take extreme measures to remove spam and bots from our platform.”
Elon Musk further clarified the limitations of the tweet on the day of the announcement. Verified Twitter accounts were restricted to reading 6,000 posts per day, while unverified accounts were limited to 600 posts. Additionally, new and unverified accounts face an even lower limit of 300 posts. However, in a series of subsequent tweets, Musk raised the limit to 8,000 for verified accounts, 800 for unverified accounts, and 400 for new unverified accounts.
In yet another exercise in irony, this post achieved a record view count!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2023
Finally, it raised the limit again to 10,000 for verified accounts, 1,000 for unverified accounts, and 500 for new unverified users.
Twitter’s move comes at a critical time when rivals are trying to challenge its dominance. MetaPlatforms, the parent company of Facebook, has announced plans to launch a microblogging app called Threads, a direct takeover of Twitter. That rollout is a significant challenge for Twitter, especially after Musk’s acquisition of the company in 2022 for $44 billion.
Twitter’s delayed response to the temporary tweet limit has sparked questions among users. When asked about the CEO’s delayed comment, Twitter responded with a playful poop emoji, their standard response to media inquiries.
