Twitter Is Limiting How Many Posts You Can See in a Day

After users around the world were greeted by a “rate limit exceeded” error, the explanation for the issue came from Twitter owner Elon Musk—Twitter is now limiting how many posts users can see each day.

Twitter Introduces Post-Viewing Limit in Response to “Data Scraping”

Twitter owner Elon Musk made the announcement in a tweet on 1 July, 2023. He said that the temporary limit was introduced “to address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation”.

Prior to the announcement, many users encountered an error saying that their rate limit had been exceeded. The error was so common that the phrase “rate limit exceeded” trended around the world.

The initial announcement said that free accounts were limited to viewing 600 posts per day, new free accounts were limited to 300 posts per day, and verified accounts were limited to viewing 6,000 posts per day.

However, shortly after the announcement, new limits were introduced—likely due to backlash from users. These limits were again increased a few hours later.

At the time of writing, verified accounts are limited to viewing 10,000 posts, free accounts are limited to 1,000 posts, and new free accounts are limited to 500 posts.

There is no news on how long the limits would stay in place. Earlier in the week, Twitter had also started blocking people from viewing the site without being logged in.According to Musk, this is another “emergency temporary measure” to prevent data scraping.

But if the backlash continues, the limits may be raised further or removed entirely. This wouldn’t be the first time the company has changed course in response to backlash. This was seen whenTwitter added, then removed, terms banning links to competitors.

Will Twitter Reverse Its Decision to Limit Views?

Time will tell how long these view limits will stay in place on Twitter. The change has been criticized by many users due to the effect on the overall experience of the platform.

However, Twitter has reversed unpopular decisions in the past, such as when it chose to block links to competitor sites.