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Twitter’s New Usage Limits To Fight Data Scrapers

The rate limiting will restrict how many tweets users can view per day and non-logged-in users won’t be able to view tweets

by aayushi.samdani
Twitter data scraping

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After restricting non-logged-in users from viewing the tweets, Twitter has now gone extreme by restricting users from viewing the tweets in order to address the extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation. According to Elon Musk, these temporary limits are the platform’s expanded effort to protect data from data scrapers by stopping them to access tweet data.

The move was highly criticized but the platform quotes that the decision was only made as an emergency measure to prevent:

  • The platform from going down altogether due to servers getting overwhelmed
  • Illegal large-scale theft of Twitter’s data.

Twitter’s rate limits

Twitter’s new rate limiting is not what everyone is thinking it is. It is not to punish non-paying users. The platform only wants to address the biggest issue they are facing regarding data scraping and system manipulation, claiming that the recently announced rate limits are temporary.

“Data scraping” is a big deal. This is where automated systems load the website or app and pull your tweets/data. It’s a huge security issue. Automated systems are pulling every tweet/word/user account information to store in an unknown database somewhere else.

The temporary measures of limiting tweets are to protect users just as much as it is to protect the entire Twitter network from going down. They are currently scrambling to get ahead of this and tune their network security to block it from happening again.

As outlined in this tweet, in order to address data scraping concerns, the platform has restricted both verified and unverified usage at different thresholds, which Musk says is a necessary step to stop data scrapers.

More updates on Twitter

Another new announcement is that the platform will add the option for chapters or timestamps on long videos, increasing the maximum video length from 2 hours is a great move to divert from what is being criticized among the users, which is “rate limiting”.

The platform has been taking the gamble on entirely new features or extended limits, maybe this will work as expected and will prompt more users to log in, where it can show them more targeted ads and create money for advertisers too. But the risk is that they don’t, and they lose reach and relevance as a result.

ChatGPT can no longer access Twitter’s data

Elon Musk was one of the early investors in OpenAI but after a fallout with its founders, Musk opted to step back from the venture, and since then, OpenAI has developed a range of generative AI tools like ChatGPT that we are enthusiastically using every day.

OpenAI has been developing and upgrading its range of generative AI tools, bringing in billions in business deals in order to sustain. Musk quoted that the main reason that he invested in the start-up was that it was a non-profit with no returns for him, but as the focus moved to making a business out of it he also left the company.

The platform has already increased the price of its API access points, in response to Musk’s belief that OpenAI wasn’t paying enough, while it also now blocks non-logged-in users from browsing tweets, yet another measure to restrict tweet data.

Now, the platform seems to be taking an even more drastic step. And while it only applies to web users right now, it will reportedly extend this new limit to mobile users as well in the coming months. 

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