Recently, Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, announced a temporary cap on the number of tweets users can view in a day.
The decision has generated a substantial backlash. Nevertheless, Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s CEO, stepped forward on Tuesday to justify this move and respond to concerns from both users and marketing professionals.
This restriction, effective from July 1, set a limit of 600 daily tweet views for most users. Many users found this constraint more than a slight annoyance, as they reached this limit within an hour or less of scrolling. Screenshots of frustrated users unable to view any more tweets, including those from corporate advertisers, began circulating on Twitter. As a result, marketers have expressed apprehension that this policy could compromise Yaccarino’s endeavours to draw advertisers to 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, 2023Twitter’s Defense: A Necessary Step to Strengthen the Platform
In her first public statement on this contentious issue, Yaccarino underscored the necessity of “big moves” to bolster the platform and uphold Twitter’s mission. Her endorsement of the tweet limits aligns with Musk’s objective of curbing excessive data scraping and system manipulation on the platform.
Twitter stood by the temporary cap, asserting that only a small fraction of users have been impacted by these limitations. According to the company, these measures were crucial in combating spam and bot activity, thereby maintaining the authenticity of the user base.
Elon Musk provided further clarity on the tweet limits on the announcement day. Verified Twitter accounts faced a limit of 6,000 daily posts, while unverified accounts were restricted to 600 posts. New and unverified accounts, on the other hand, had an even lower cap of 300 posts. Following this, Musk escalated the limits in a series of tweets, ultimately setting them at 10,000 for verified accounts, 1,000 for unverified accounts, and 500 for new unverified users.
In yet another exercise in irony, this post achieved a record view count!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2023Twitter’s controversial decision is critical when competitors attempt to exploit its market share. Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, recently disclosed its plans to launch a microblogging app named Threads, a competitor to Twitter. This move poses a significant challenge to Twitter, particularly after Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company in 2022.
Twitter’s delayed reaction to the temporary tweet limits has invited questions from users. When probed about the CEO’s belated comment, Twitter responded with a cheeky poop emoji, their go-to response to media queries.
Read: Twitter’s Crisis: New Tweet Limits and the Platform’s Potential Downfall
