Elon Musk announced a new policy for Twitter on Saturday that limits most users to reading just 600 tweets per day. But there does appear to be one workaround that hasn’t been restricted yet: Tweetdeck.
Twitter users were confused on Saturday after many people reported getting an error message that reads “rate limit exceeded.” Many assumed Twitter was down, but the site’s billionaire owner explained on Twitter that new limitations had been put in place, allowing verified users to read just 6,000 posts per day, while regular users would be limited to reading 600 posts per day. New accounts would be even more restricted, with just 300 posts per day.
How can users circumvent the new limits? First, log in to your Twitter account and then visit tweetdeck.twitter.com. You’ll be asked to add your account and the website has the option of providing a guided tour on how Tweetdeck works.
Tweetdeck allows users to create columns with specialized parameters, including a user’s lists or even a specific keyword search. Users can also create a column that’s just for direct messages or organize all of the lists in a system called Decks.
Users can also customize columns by changing the width of content or viewing tweets in chronological order or reverse chronological order. Unfortunately, Tweetdeck isn’t available in a mobile app, but it can be opened in a phone’s internet browser. This solution isn’t ideal, obviously, but it’s the best workaround I’ve found so far. At least until Musk decided to rate limit Tweetdeck.
Musk said the new restrictions were put in place due to “extreme levels of data scraping” and “system manipulation,” though plenty of users speculated there were other motives. Media critic Jay Rosen speculated that Twitter’s “verification” system, which allows anyone to buy a blue checkmark at $8 per month, was not selling very well and Musk was trying to push users to buy it.
But others speculated Musk was intentionally trying to sabotage the site, a claim for which there isn’t much evidence. That being said, if you wanted to absolutely decimate any social media platform the first thing you’d do is limit how much content someone could view.
“This kills the ad revenue, but also kills the main usecase (news/doomscrolling), so I’m interested in what the plan is now,” one user explained.
Another possibility is that Twitter has simply stopped paying the bills necessary to keep the site functioning. According to the tech news site Platformer, Twitter just stopped paying Google for cloud-based services it was providing and there was a “mad dash” in June to migrate many of Twitter’s data to other providers. Twitter’s contract with Google reportedly expired on June 30, which was yesterday.
Twitter responded to emailed questions on Saturday with a poop emoji, an automated response that goes out to all reporters. Musk, a 52-year-old man, set up the auto-responder not long after he purchased the company in October 2022.
Whatever is going on, Twitter users aren’t very happy with the changes. And it remains to be seen how long they’ll be in place.
Update 5:04 p.m. ET: It appears Tweetdeck is getting hit with similar limits now, making the Tweetdeck workaround less practical. It does appear, however, that you can at least double the number of posts you can read in a given day by using multiple platforms. It’s all a confusing mess at this point.
Read the full article here
