Nobody knew for sure how the tenure of Elon Musk would go when he purchased Twitter for $44 billion, but roughly seven months into his reign, it’s been nothing short of tumultuous.
Musk made the startling announcement Saturday that unverified accounts that don’t subscribe to his Twitter Blue service will only be able to read up to 600 posts a day.
Verified accounts are limited to 6,000 posts a day, while “newly unverified accounts” can only see 300 posts per day.
Musk claims these temporary limits are needed to address “extreme levels” of data scraping and system manipulation on the platform.
He claims Twitter is “getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users.”
However, Platformer recently reported that Twitter signed a $1 billion contract to host “some” of its services on the company’s Google Cloud servers. Musk refused to pay the search giant and the contract’s renewal date was set for June 30th.
That would make these new measures certainly coincidental if they’re not the true meaning of the new limits.
Regardless, the sports world was quick to react to what many perceived to be Musk’s latest attempts to leverage customers into paying the $8-a-month fee to join the ranks of Twitter Blue:
Imagine only seeing 600 tweets a day on a college football Saturday in the middle of October.
— Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) July 1, 2023
Steve Cohen is following Elon Musk's lead and implementing limits on being a Mets fan. pic.twitter.com/FnpHdrKDpw
— Mark Gooden (@TooGooden17) July 1, 2023
Elon Musk with Twitter rn pic.twitter.com/hPWPTm1Qwn
— Dez, You Crazy Dawg (@DezWeNeedMoore) July 1, 2023
Fabrizio Romano 🗣️: “HERE WE GO. Manchester United have agreed a fee of £80 Million with Tottenham for Harry Kane”
Elon Musk 🗣️: “You have exceeded your limit for the day”
United Fans🤦♂️🤦 pic.twitter.com/swVSFJyJBX
— ₭₳Ɏ ₵ɆɆ🔴🏴 (@KAYCEE__UNITED) July 1, 2023
paying $8/month for constantly degrading services and features lol
— Treb (@treblaw) July 1, 2023
