Did you log in on Twitter and find an error message on the homepage? Did you then explore the app briefly, only to find a curious message displaying that your Rate Limit has been exceeded? So the main question now is- what does this mean?
Less than a day ago, no one had even heard of this term, but later on, this was used to prevent Twitter users from accessing the site. Elon Musk tweeted to explain what it was, but users couldn’t even access his tweets for some time due to the rate limit set in place. So what did he say?
Elon Musk has officially clarified Twitter’s Rate Limit. He has stated that verified accounts can read 10k per day while unverified ones will only get to read 1k. As for the new and unverified sites, they will read only 500 tweets daily. The CEO has stated that the company is enforcing these rules on the site to prevent data scraping. However, users think it’s because of a bug and that Musk wants to make more money off the site.
Twitter Rate Limit Explained
When Twitter users logged in to the site a few hours ago, they couldn’t see new tweets on their homepage, access their tweets, or even send direct messages to anyone. All anyone could see was a banner saying that they couldn’t see tweets because their Rate Limits were exceeded.
Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk soon announced that he is setting temporary Rate Limits on the number of tweets Twitter users can read. In a tweet, he said that verified accounts will be able to access 6000 posts/ day, unverified ones will be limited to 600 posts/ day, and unverified as well as new accounts will have an even lower 300 tweet limit.
However, a couple of hours later, he said that the Rate Limits had been changed to “8000 for verified, 800 for unverified & 400 for new unverified.” Then again, an hour later, he increased the limit to 10,000 for verified accounts, 1,000 for unverified users, and 500 for new unverified accounts.
This means that currently, a single user with a verified account can read 10K tweets per day. An unverified Twitter user will be able to read 1K tweets every day, and new or unverified accounts will only be able to see or read 0.5K tweets. It’s unclear how the platform is calculating who has tweets a user is seeing or reading.
Musk, who bought Twitter for a whopping 44 billion last year and made the company private, said he is doing this to exterminate system manipulation and data scraping. Musk had said that organizations are aggressively data scraping, thus, impacting the user experience.
Previously, the SpaceX owner had expressed displeasure with AI firms like OpenAI using the site to train their language models. However, there’s chatter that data scraping didn’t prompt Musk to take this step.
Instead, there was a bug in the web app of the site that was sending requests in an infinite loop, thus making it impossible for the systems to keep up. Many site users are alleging that this is just another way for Musk to make the site users pay for verified accounts. After all, as per reports, Twitter’s valuation has reduced drastically from $44 billion.
What Does Rate Limit Exceeded Mean on Twitter?
Twitter users were surprised to log into the site only to find that they couldn’t see any tweets and instead were greeted with a message saying that their Rate Limit had been exceeded. Rate Limit means the number of tweets a Twitter user can read on the platform.
Elon Musk tweeted that verified accounts will be able to read 10k tweets, unverified ones will be able to read 1k tweets, and new unverified accounts will be capped at 500 tweets daily. So as of now, it means that when a verified account holder exceeds reading 10k tweets, they won’t be allowed to look at any more tweets.
The same will happen to unverified account holders at 1k tweets and new as well as unverified accounts after 500 tweets. Whether they will be logged out of the site or face the Rate Limit Exceeded message again remains to be seen.
Multiple site users have alleged that this is just a new innovative way by Elon Musk to get more money from the site. However, the site’s owner has revealed that it’s being done to curb large-scale data scraping. Others have alleged that it’s because of a bug that’s preventing the site from accessing requests safely.
Why Does Twitter Say Rate Limit Exceeded?
If you logged into Twitter and found a message saying Rate Limit Exceeded and cannot see tweets on your feeds, you might need clarification about what’s happening. The message means you have exceeded the number of tweets you can view daily.
As per Elon Musk, you can view 10k tweets a day if you have a verified account, 1k tweets per day if you have an unverified account, and 500 tweets every day if you have a new and unverified account. If these limits are exceeded, Twitter users won’t be able to see tweets and will instead see the Rate Limit Exceeded message.
However, Musk hasn’t revealed how the site will calculate how many tweets a user views. The Tesla CEO has called it a temporary measure against data scraping by large organizations. However, the site users aren’t pleased. So hashtags like #ByeTwitter, #AreWeBack, and #SoTwitter have begun trending.
Users have alleged that Musk is making the site nearly unusable. Memes about Twitter users finally going out and touching grass have also inundated the site. It remains to be seen how long this Rate Limit rule is kept.
Rate Limit Exceeded Twitter Fix
As per Twitter CEO Elon Musk, verified accounts can view 10k tweets; unverified accounts will see 1k tweets, and new and unverified accounts will see 500 tweets daily. However, this isn’t enough for many. So people are looking at ways to bypass the Rate Limit Exceeded issue. Here are some ways to do that:
- As for now, the ceiling is set at 10k tweets. If you have an unverified account, you can subscribe to Twitter Blue for $8 monthly to see 10k tweets daily.
- You can go into incognito mode from your browser and then log in to twitter.com and your account to view more tweets than what your account has been allocated. However, it’s not yet been proven that this method is foolproof and will always work.
- You can use a VPN to circumvent the Rate Limit Exceeded. Just download a free VPN online and then use it to access your Twitter account. However, ensure that before doing this, you log out of Twitter. Then activate the VPN and log back into your account.
- If you have a backup account, you can use that to view more tweets.
It remains to be seen when these Rate Limits last.
What are your thoughts on Elon Musk implementing this abrupt Rate Limit rule?
Will Twitter users start vacating the site and moving to other sites? Or will Musk take back the rules soon?
Let us know in the comments below.
Source: ABC
