Threads Implements Rate Limit as Bots Arrive on the Platform

Threads have been doing well so far, especially with its successful launch getting 100 million users in less than a week. It was only a matter of time before bots found their way into the platform as well, and they already have. In response, Threads is enforcing a read limit as well, just as Twitter did.

Threads' Rate Limit

If you don't yet, the rate limit determines how many posts a user can view in a day. Threads are following in the footsteps of Twitter as they implement the policy. The only difference is, the Instagram-based platform is not enforcing it on all its users.

Twitter head Adam Mosseri stated that they have picked up spam attacks, which is why the platform has to get tighter on things like rate limits. It will only apply to bot accounts, but there is a possibility that active people can "get caught up in those protections" as false positives.

Elon Musk being who he is responded to the screenshot of the announcement on Twitter, calling Threads a copycat (using the word "copy and the cat emoji), as mentioned in Tech Crunch. This was due to the fact that it was Twitter that enforced a similar limit first.

Just like Threads, Twitter has been dealing with its spam and bot problems for a while now. As a solution, Musk created a policy where users are only allowed a certain number of posts a day, which ironically is one of the reasons why people switched to Threads.

Twitter, at first, unverified accounts were limited to 600 posts a day, with new unverified accounts cut in half to just 300. Even Twitter Blue subscribers had their own limit of 8,000 tweets a day, which beats the purpose of being a verified account.

The platform has since raised the cap. Unverified users can now view up to 1,000 tweets per day, which is still cut in half for new unverified users at 500 tweets. Verified users will now have a 10,000 daily post limit.

Reports say that Musk plans to raise the limit after receiving criticism for the restrictions. Increasing it by 50%, unverified users will soon be able to view up to 1,500 tweets per day, 750 for new unverified users, and 15,000 posts for verified users.

Why Twitter Limited Their Rate

Twitter, like Threads is doing now, implemented the limit to restrict bot accounts. According to the company, it was also due to AI companies cramping data off of Twitter to train their AI models for free. Twitter claims that the limitations would only be temporary.

The changes were also sudden, which is part of the reason why users were upset about it. The company states that it had to be done unannounced so that bad actors would not be able to "alter their behavior and evade detection."

Data scraping has been an issue with AI companies for a while, with some claiming that the companies are taking data without consent, including private and sensitive data. It has not been proven and the AI companies are denying the allegations.