Why is Elon Musk restricting how many tweets you can see? | Mashable.

Rate limit explained: Why is Elon Musk restricting how many tweets you can see?

Here's why your doomscrolling is coming to an abrupt halt.

Elon Musk strikes again. Credit: Mashable / Ian Moore

Another day, another problem on Elon Musk's Twitter.

On July 1, Musk tweeted that he would be imposing "temporary limits" on how many tweets users can view in a day. The limits were meant to address "extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation." These measures came just one day after Twitter began blocking visitors from viewing the site without being logged in, something Musk claimed was a "temporary emergency measure" to prevent data pillaging.

What is Twitter's rate limit?

As Musk's new constraints went into effect, users were greeted by messages that they had exceeded their rate limit for the day and that they could no longer see tweets. When first announced, verified users could view 6,000 posts, unverified accounts could view 600, and new unverified accounts could view 300. The limits have since been increased to 10,000, 1,000, and 500 posts, respectively.

Musk may have cited data scraping as the primary reason for imposing the rate limits, but according to Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, that reasoning wasn't quite adding up. As first reported by Insider(opens in a new tab), Roth wrote in a thread on Twitter alternative Bluesky that "it just doesn't pass the sniff test that scraping all of a sudden created such dramatic performance problems that Twitter had no choice but to put everything behind a login."

According to Roth, this isn't even the first time Musk's Twitter crashed because of fiddling with the site's rate limiter. "There's a reason the limiter was one of the most locked down internal tools," he wrote. "Futzing with rate limits is probably the easiest way to break Twitter."

Data scraping aside, there may have been another reason for the measure: a bug. As reported by Waxy(opens in a new tab), web developer Simon Chang(opens in a new tab) posted on Mastodon that he'd noticed a Twitter bug that is creating an infinite loop of requests:

This is hilarious. It appears that Twitter is DDOSing itself.

The Twitter home feed’s been down for most of this morning. Even though nothing loads, the Twitter website never stops trying and trying.

In the first video, notice the error message that I’m being rate limited. Then notice the jiggling scrollbar on the right.

The second video shows why it’s jiggling. Twitter is firing off about 10 requests a second to itself to try and fetch content that never arrives because Elon’s latest genius innovation is to block people from being able to read Twitter without logging in.

This likely created some hellish conditions that the engineers never envisioned and so we get this comedy of errors resulting in the most epic of self-owns, the self-DDOS.

Unbelievable. It’s amateur hour.

How can you get around Twitter's rate limit?

If you want to get around Twitter's rate limit, you can use log into your account on Tweetdeck(opens in a new tab) on a desktop or mobile browser, although it is designed to work best on a desktop. As of July 2, my own feed and notifications were working without a hitch on Tweetdeck, although some Twitter users are already reporting(opens in a new tab) issues(opens in a new tab) with their(opens in a new tab) experience(opens in a new tab), so your mileage may vary.

More in Social Media, Twitter, Elon Musk

Comments

  1. Why are people are still playing his game? Jump ship while you can!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pretty much stable flow of new Blue subscribers, ~130K/month
      2023-06 114,842
      2023-05 90,000 <-- looks like a data error here
      2023-04 228,123
      2023-03 152,474
      2023-02 112,421
      2023-01 141,503
      2022-12 63,137
      2022-11 141,474

      Source: https://github.com/travisbrown/blue/tree/main/data

      Delete
    2. Sure, but then why complain about what the puppetmaster is doing? I'm sure it will be just fine.

      Delete
    3. The current daily view limit for subscribers is 6,000 (for free users - 600). Blue subscribers won't even notice there is a limit.

      Delete
  2. It's like he doesn't understand what the product is so he keeps removing random parts from the assembly line and sells it like it's the same thing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Where is the new CEO??

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wasn’t it just temporary to deal with some site issues and isn’t it over now? Please confirm.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Once again we get proof that rediculously people are not always smart. Sometimes, quite the opposite

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is what happens when you don't pay your Google and AWS bills

    ReplyDelete
  7. To get you to pay for verification of course. How much more obvious does it need to be?

    I mean the bigger picture is to make sure the cratering of twitter is complete and irreversible, but short term? Conning people who don't care to give him money into giving him money or abandoning the platform.

    ReplyDelete
  8. As usual Blue (paid) subscribers can view up to 6,000 tweets daily (virtually unlimited), while unverified accounts get 600.

    Pay bloody $8 to Elon. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  9. He's late on his AWS bill.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Work From Home Jobs .For more all details.
      If you're interested.
      So apply now 💰
      https://tinyurl.com/8prtjabr

      Delete
  10. API, web scraping abuse. AI model sampling, human productivity thwarted my guesses

    ReplyDelete
  11. Freedom of speech.....as long as I approve of it🤨

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. exactly 💯

      Delete
    2. Only applies to prosecution from government. Private companies can dictate terms of use.

      Delete
  12. He didn’t pay his Google cloud bill. Lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Work From Home Jobs .For more all details.
      If you're interested.
      So apply now 💰
      https://tinyurl.com/8prtjabr

      Delete
  13. This 'Twitter', whats that then? Can't be bothered to google it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Its fun to see Elon struggle for the first time in his 52 years. It's even funnier to see the remaining handful of short white boys struggle to make excuses for Elon's myriad failures.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elon cucks: Hold my beer lol

      Delete
    2. Thanks for your love and support congratulations💕💕💕 I really appreciate you can now send a message to CEO of Tesla Elon musk... a directly message here on his private Chat Show some love 💕💕💕💕💕💕and click on the link 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

      https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093149186141

      Delete
  15. Work From Home Jobs .For more all details.
    If you're interested.
    So apply now 💰
    https://tinyurl.com/8prtjabr

    ReplyDelete
  16. Mashable = commie sympathizers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. You = Elon Cuck

      Delete
    3. lol. Whatever sissy.

      Delete
    4. where do you get that?

      Delete
  17. Oh, I don't know, he's a control.freak and a hypocrit, ya think?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Because of Neuralink. Hope u get it now

    ReplyDelete
  19. Its fun to see Elon struggle for the first time in his 52 years. It's even funnier to see the remaining handful of short white boys struggle to make excuses for Elon's myriad failures.🤣🤣🤣

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow, I would say this puts me on the come up to be honest. Because ever since this Nimrod took over, my daily tweet limit is zero and it's not changing anytime soon

    ReplyDelete
  21. https://imgur.com/gallery/6rlwLmB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It just doesn't make any sense, does it? (Musk, not this explainer.) This means people won't be seeing the ads from the advertisers he so desperately needs, too.

      Delete
    2. Musk can't rely on ad revenues because advertisers are abandoning Twitter. He's desperately trying to find a way to get people to pay for Twitter directly to make up for that.

      Delete
  22. I think it's because Elon is just as stupid as Twitter has always been.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Work From Home Jobs .For more all details.
    If you're interested.
    So apply now 💰
    https://tinyurl.com/8prtjabr

    ReplyDelete
  24. It’s intentional. He’s wanted it to fail all along. Communication cutoff = no dissent.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I don't know, but I want that on Facebook too.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Everything this guy touches turns to gold!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Because freedom comes with a price

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe the going rate for freedom is a buck-O-five.

      Delete
  28. Because using his site without the servers he's decided to not pay for anymore while the system still tries to call on them created a DDOS attack on itself, lmao. What a brain on that one.

    ReplyDelete
  29. This “limit what you can see” (if you don’t pay) on tweeter, is a blessing, all we keep getting as of late is pure garbage.
    Talking about you blue-check folks.
    https://media1.tenor.co/images/974f55a75d9d6d0b14eaf27113b4e052/tenor.gif?c=VjFfZmFjZWJvb2tfd2ViY29tbWVudHM&itemid=24376060

    ReplyDelete
  30. It's a privacy issue. There are malicious companies with programs that scraped all tweets and stored them into a database. It's a privacy issue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. privacy on a public platform? Yea right. Elon didn’t pay Google cloud and that’s it

      Delete
    2. it's because he refused to renew the contract for cloud services and couldn't migrate them in time because he fired everyone or they quit.

      Delete
    3. keep on believing that story. 👏 😂🤣

      Delete
    4. if you actually believe this I genuinely feel sorry for you

      Delete
  31. Good... I don't have and not interested in Twitter anyway...🤣😆

    ReplyDelete
  32. People still use Twitter?

    ReplyDelete
  33. because he is killing Twitter

    ReplyDelete
  34. TWITTER IS OFFICIALLY RUN BY A DIGITAL MEDIA COMMUNIST!

    ReplyDelete
  35. You just can’t let go

    ReplyDelete
  36. Don’t trust Musk!
    I don’t know how often you have to tell people to keep their eyes open!? 🤷🏻‍♂️

    And in the end to be fair noone really needs Twitter because it’s everything but not social. It’s mainly a bashing and mocking platform for people without own lives! 🤣🤣

    ReplyDelete
  37. Don’t worry you can trust Elon with all your tweets.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I thought he hired someone else to run it into the ground for him.

    ReplyDelete
  39. My only guess is that he is trying to prove how I underestimated his stupidity.

    ReplyDelete
  40. #TwitterIsElonMusksFascistLitterbox

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. do you even understand the reason why? Don't think so ....

      Delete
  41. The real more important question is, Why do we Care?

    ReplyDelete
  42. Elon is killing Twitter

    ReplyDelete
  43. Remember the three P's of Twitter:
    Pay
    Per
    Post

    ReplyDelete
  44. You dumb Libs don’t get it

    Less clicks is what advertisers want

    ReplyDelete

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