Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, implemented a tiered limit on the number of tweets users can view, citing the need to address excessive data scraping and system manipulation.
Recently, Twitter provided an update on this matter, stating that the temporary usage restrictions were imposed to identify and eliminate bots and other malicious actors that pose a threat to the platform.
The company explained that providing advance notice of these actions could have allowed the bots and bad actors to adjust their behavior to avoid detection.
The company stated that it is taking extreme measures to ensure the authenticity of its user base by combating spam and bots on the platform. Twitter aims to prevent these accounts from scraping public data for AI models and manipulating conversations on the platform.
Elon Musk has been vocal about his disdain for bot accounts, expressing a strong commitment to eliminating spam, scams, and bot armies, as they negatively impact the user experience. Last year, Musk accused Twitter of concealing the true number of bots and even considered withdrawing from acquiring the company.
Twitter emphasizes that the restrictions imposed affect only a small percentage of platform users, with minimal effects on advertising. However, these changes have reportedly impacted the discoverability of tweets and pages on Google Search, a concern acknowledged by Twitter. The limited ability to display Twitter results in search results has been attributed to the company’s control over crawler access to its content.
