If you have been on any social media platform, you may have already seen complaints or reports of Twitter limiting its users' read limit per day, wherein certain user status determines the number of tweets they can view. According to Twitter, the limit was supposed to be abrupt.
Twitter's Surprise Policy
When Twitter makes changes, whether it upsets its users or not, the company announces it through its newsroom or Elon Musk simply tweets it. However, advanced notice was not provided for the latest change to make Twitter's detection of bots more effective.
An early announcement would've allowed bad actors to "alter their behavior to evade detection." It was mentioned by Twitter that the changes are only temporary, which means that the unlimited view rate will likely return as soon as the issue has been resolved.
Ultimately, the move aims to prevent the bot accounts from scraping people's public Twitter data to build AI models, as well as manipulate people and conversations on the site in various ways. The company claims that only a small percentage of users are affected by the rate limit.
Elon Musk has already pointed out the bot problem on Twitter before, which is partly why Twitter Blue was created as well. Verification will weed out accounts that are not held by actual people and it also limits one person to one account (although people can still make several accounts).
The company means to remove the bots to make a better experience for Twitter users. However, it appears that the measure has done more damage than good. Lately, people are complaining about the change, even prompting some to leave Twitter.
This may have been the last straw for some users considering the company has not been making good decisions in the previous months. For instance, even Twitter Blue subscribers are subjected to the read rate limit of 8,000 posts a day
Granted, the change is only temporary, but users are already exploring Twitter alternatives while the company is trying to fix the platform, and that might be just enough time for them to get accustomed to a new platform and not return to Twitter at all.
Twitter Alternatives on the Rise
Tech players are already sensing the degradation of Twitter's service, and they are ready and willing to take over the mantle of the leading text-based platform. Both apps that have existed for years, newly released, and upcoming claim to offer what Twitter users are missing.
One competitor that has been around for a while is Mastodon. It already has an established decentralized social network. Although, active users have since decreased since everyone tried to flee from Twitter under Elon Musk.
Bluesky, on the other hand, could also be a worthy competitor, especially since it is backed by former CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. In fact, the company reports that there has been a surge in web traffic after the Twitter rate limit was announced.
There's also Meta with Threads, a new app that is regarded as a Twitter rival, as mentioned in The Verge. Its release date has been set for July 6th. It helps that a tech giant like Meta is behind the upcoming app when it comes to encouraging online users to sign up.
