‘RIP Twitter’ trend started, Jack Dorsey reacts as Elon Musk limits tweet reading

‘RIP Twitter’ trend started, Jack Dorsey reacts as Elon Musk limits tweet reading

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In a recent development, Elon Musk, the prominent entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, announced that Twitter would impose temporary restrictions on the number of tweets users could read per day.

This move was aimed at curbing the exploitation of Twitter’s data by artificial intelligence (AI) companies. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, reacted to Musk’s announcement by acknowledging the challenges involved in running the social media platform.

Dorsey took to Twitter to express his empathy for those managing the platform, stating, “Running Twitter is hard. I don’t wish that stress upon anyone. I trust that the team is doing their best under the constraints they have, which are immense.”

Despite being critical of certain decisions made by Twitter in the past, Dorsey recognized the overarching goal of ensuring the thriving of the platform. He further emphasized the need to explore alternative solutions, suggesting that building on censorship-resistant open protocols like Bitcoin and Nostr could alleviate some of the burdens faced by Twitter while preserving the openness of the internet.

In response to the rampant data scraping and system manipulation by third-party platforms, Musk revealed that Twitter would restrict the number of tweets that verified accounts and non-verified users can read each day.

Verified accounts, typically belonging to public figures and organizations, would be limited to reading 10,000 tweets per day, whereas non-verified users, who constitute the majority of Twitter’s user base, would be restricted to 1,000 tweets per day. New unverified accounts would face an even stricter limit of 500 tweets.

The decision to implement these restrictions was driven by the need to combat excessive data scraping and system manipulation, which have been prevalent on the platform.

Musk’s announcement prompted a significant response on Twitter, with “Goodbye Twitter” becoming a trending topic in the United States. This suggests that some users were unhappy with the imposed limitations and may have considered leaving the platform as a result.

While these restrictions may inconvenience some users, they reflect Twitter’s proactive approach to tackling data abuse and system manipulation. By limiting the number of tweets that can be read, Twitter aims to deter AI companies and other third-party platforms from exploiting its data on a large scale.

These measures may also encourage the development and adoption of more secure and censorship-resistant technologies, such as blockchain-based solutions like Bitcoin and Nostr, as suggested by Dorsey.

Overall, the recent announcement by Elon Musk regarding Twitter’s temporary restrictions on the number of tweets users can read per day has sparked discussions about data scraping and system manipulation on the platform.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO, responded to Musk’s announcement by acknowledging the challenges of managing Twitter and expressing his support for the platform’s success. Despite potential user dissatisfaction, these limitations represent Twitter’s efforts to address data abuse and protect the integrity of the platform.

The suggestions to explore censorship-resistant open protocols like Bitcoin and Nostr highlight the importance of preserving the open internet while mitigating the burdens faced by social media platforms.

Twitter’s billionaire owner, Elon Musk, did not provide a specific timeline for how long the recently imposed measures would remain in place. The day before implementing these measures, Musk had announced that reading tweets on Twitter without an account would no longer be possible.

The decision to restrict access to tweets was driven by the rampant data scraping taking place on the platform. Many firms were utilizing Twitter’s data to train their artificial intelligence (AI) models, leading to significant traffic issues for the site.

In order to create AI models capable of responding in a human-like manner, companies often rely on examples of real-life conversations sourced from social media platforms like Twitter.

Musk revealed that “several hundred organizations, maybe more,” were aggressively scraping data from Twitter, to the extent that it was negatively impacting the experience of genuine users. This widespread data scraping was not limited to startups but also involved major corporations, emphasizing the extent of the issue. Musk expressed his frustration, stating, “It is rather galling to have to bring large numbers of servers online on an emergency basis just to facilitate some AI startup’s outrageous valuation.”

While Twitter is grappling with the challenges posed by the AI sector’s rapid growth, it is not the only social media platform facing these issues. In mid-June, Reddit increased prices for third-party developers who were using its data and collecting conversations from its forums.

This move generated controversy, as many regular users accessed the site through third-party platforms. It marked a departure from the previous practice of providing social media data either for free or at a nominal cost.

The measures implemented by Twitter and Reddit underscore the struggle faced by social media giants in managing the increased demand for data by AI companies. Data scraping on such a large scale not only strains the platforms’ infrastructure but also raises concerns about user privacy and the fair use of data.

Social media platforms are now grappling with the need to strike a balance between allowing access to data for legitimate purposes while preventing excessive scraping and maintaining a positive user experience.

In conclusion, Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, has not specified the duration of the recently implemented measures restricting tweet access. The decision was driven by the extensive data scraping from Twitter, primarily by AI firms, causing traffic issues on the platform.

Similar challenges have been encountered by other social media platforms, such as Reddit, leading to adjustments in their data-sharing policies. These developments highlight the ongoing struggle faced by social media platforms in managing data access, protecting user experience, and addressing the demands of the rapidly growing AI sector.

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