Twitter users were left bewildered after a “rate limit exceeded” message popped up on their app.
Twitter temporarily capped the number of posts users could view over the weekend in a move that owner Elon Musk said was to tackle the “extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation.”
Data scraping or “web scraping” is an automated process in which computer programs extract large amounts of data from websites, databases, and enterprise applications.
To address the two issues, Musk explained in a tweet, Twitter limited verified accounts to viewing 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts to 600 posts per day, and new unverified accounts to 300 per day.
Once a Twitter user hit their aforementioned limit, they would refresh their page to see the message “rate limit exceeded.”
While a temporary measure, many users were confused by the sudden limit on their Twitter activity.
One user tweeted, “I was on this site for 5 mins and got this. Thanks for my time back. I might be done.” Another remarked, “Will be nice to hear what the real story is. How long before you have to pay to tweet.”
Shortly after the new policy was implemented, Musk raised the limit to 10,000 posts a day for verified users, 1,000 a day for unverified users, and 500 a day for new unverified users.
Musk joked Saturday about the unprecedented move and the irony of user behavior on the platform.
“Rate limited due to reading all the posts about rate limits,” and “Oh the irony of hitting view limits due to complaining about view limits,” Musk tweeted.
The fun did not stop for Musk. He continued, “The reason I set a ‘View Limit’ is because we are all Twitter addicts and need to go outside. I’m doing a good deed for the world here. Also, that’s another view you just used.”
When last checked, Musk’s original post announcing the rate limits had garnered 572.6 million views and 115,300 retweets.
“In yet another exercise in irony, this post achieved a record view count!” Musk said.
While the dust had settled by Monday and unrestricted user activity was restored, many questioned the real reason behind the move.
Mike Benz, executive director at Foundation For Freedom Online and former State Department diplomat, tweeted his own theory about why Musk really implemented a temporary rate limit.
“Wow. Musk has no idea the DARPA rattlesnake he just stepped on by this doing this…,” he said, labeling the video he posted as his “take on [Elon Musk’s] new rate limit policy, from the lens of the censorship industry.”
Wow. Musk has no idea the DARPA rattlesnake he just stepped on by this doing this…
My take on @elonmusk’s new rate limit policy, from the lens of the censorship industry: https://t.co/AZ5SPIgHiz pic.twitter.com/Rw4KBZsT9O
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) July 1, 2023
Benz hypothesized that the computer networks scraping Twitter’s data are being harnessed by global governments to develop AI censorship models, or as he put it, an “AI censorship Death Star.”
Musk has given no further updates on the rate limit policy or if and when it will return.
