It looks like Twitter is taking quite a few measures to combat the claimed attack from “several hundred organisations.” As per new directions, anyone with a link to a Tweet cannot access it without creating an account. If you attempt to view a tweet without being logged into your Twitter account, a sign-in screen will now show up. Therefore, if you do not want to be on the app, that won’t be an option for you any longer.
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As claimed by Elon Musk, “It’s just a temporary emergency measure.” This came as users on Twitter’s web browser were unable to access tweets unless they were logged in. So, here are 10 pointers to understand what happened:
- Elon Musk tweeted that the platform is taking temporary emergency measures as a response to a user who asked about login requirements. According to Musk, the data was getting scrapped off the platform so much that it was impacting the user experience.
- Reports suggest that Musk was referring to “web scrappers,” which are responsible for pulling data from the platform without the need for any official API. It is to be noted that Twitter’s API is limited and costs a minimum of $42,000 per month.
- Zoë Schiffer, the managing editor of Platformer, noted that this restriction on web browsers is soon going to expand to mobile. Further, Schiffer explained that this move seemed “interesting” since Musk’s initial decision was to drive the users to an explore page rather than a sign-up screen.
- Twitter is also putting a restriction on how many tweets a user can read. This was informed by Musk via a tweet on July 2. The newly registered and unverified users may face tighter restrictions, where they may be allowed to view just 300 posts per day.
- While explaining the attack from several hundred organisations, Musk did not explain who specifically was scraping the data or for how long this issue persisted, nor did he explain the system manipulation claim.
- Previously, Musk was outraged over Microsoft using Twitter’s data illegally and asserted that the platform may bring a lawsuit against them.
- Back in April, Microsoft dropped Twitter from its advertising platform. This came nearly two months after it charged a minimum of $42,000 per month for utilising its data.
- Right now, a problem that seems to have found its place was noticed by web developer Sheldon Chang where a bug in Twitter’s web app is constantly sending requests to Twitter in an infinite loop.
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- This came as tens of thousands of users complained on Saturday that the platform was not populating their feeds with newer tweets. However, users saw an error of “rate limit exceeded.”
- All of this is happening at a time when Meta is prepping to launch a Twitter rival of its own.
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