#RIPTwitter: Will Musk's Twitter rate limits further dampen user interest?

Under the new 'rate limit', Twitter users will only be able to view a limited set of tweets per day. Users and advertisers have criticised Elon Musk’s recent announcement.

Twitter supremo Elon Musk recently announced that tweets that each user can see per day will now be restricted. He termed the viewership limits as “rate limits”.

Now, users who have subscribed to Twitter blue can see up to 10,000 tweets per day. Those who haven't can only view 1,000 tweets a day.

People who are new to the platform and are unverified users will only be able to see 500 tweets in 24 hours. 

Initially, the rate limits were set to be 6,000 posts/day for verified profiles and 600 posts/ day for unverified accounts.

Users speculated that the platform was seeing an outage globally. Musk increased the rate limit within a few hours.

Musk later informed that these restrictions were only temporary. They are designed to address “extreme levels of data scraping” and “system manipulation”.

To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits:

- Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day
- Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day
- New unverified accounts to 300/day

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023

Reports speculate Musk's decision is owed to large amounts of data used by artificial intelligence companies that power chatbots like ChatGPT.

"The limitations imposed by Twitter highlight the profound impact that data mining and system manipulation can have. This emphasizes the pressing need for digital platforms that prioritize ethics, transparency, and the preservation of user trust and information integrity," Tejas Rathod, founder and COO, Mobavenue Media, an adtech company, tells afaqs!.

Twitter has 353.90 million users in 2023. This is an almost 4 percent decrease from 2022, according to research by Statista.

Further, the user base is expected to further go down to 335 million by 2024. With #RIPTwitter trending again on the platform, it is highly likely that rate limits can further dent user interest in the platform. 

The move has been criticised by ad experts globally. Owing to the reducing user base and Musk's radical business decisions, Twitter's global ad revenue has already fallen by 28% in 2023 when compared to 2022, according to research firm Insider Intelligence.

Dr Kushal Sanghvi, head- India and SEA, CitrusAd, opines that the decision could be a part of Twitter’s decision to make the platform more premium. “The move would definitely limit user interactions on the platform. Many may even log out of Twitter as it loses its USP with the new move. But, it would make Twitter ad algorithm more specific for brands. The platform would then be able to charge a higher CPM and drive a more premium ad pricing."

Sanghvi further adds, "Simultaneously, Twitter will lose on advertiser volume. With the recent introduction and promotion of subscriptions, maybe Musk and co are looking to  change Twitter’s identity to a more premium platform. This move, where subscribers have a higher rate limit, aligns with that.”