Since Elon Musk took charge of Twitter in October of last year, the platform has undergone several transformations. Some notable changes include the introduction of a paid subscription model and the implementation of two-factor authentication for paying customers. Now, Twitter is introducing another significant change that could impact users. The company is making it obligatory for users to sign in to an account in order to access tweets on the platform.
Previously, users could view tweets even without logging into an account. However, moving forward, individuals attempting to access content on Twitter will be prompted to create an account or log in to an existing one. Musk has referred to this change as a “temporary emergency measure.”
According to Elon Musk, the decision to make signing in mandatory on Twitter is a result of widespread data scraping that was negatively impacting the user experience. Musk mentioned that numerous organizations were aggressively scraping Twitter data, causing a degradation in service for regular users. This change not only restricts users’ access but also prevents embedded tweets from appearing in most chat apps. Some users raised concerns about the tradeoffs in user experience and growth, comparing it to platforms like TikTok and YouTube that don’t require such measures despite higher bandwidth requirements.
Musk assured that the restriction on embedded tweets would be lifted soon and explained that this immediate action was necessary due to the extensive data scraping taking place. He expressed frustration with AI companies, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI, using Twitter’s data to train their language models, suggesting that legal action would be taken against those who stole the data. Musk anticipated that any legal proceedings would likely occur in the next two to three years.
