Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, recently expressed the challenges of running the social media platform in a tweet. This comes after Elon Musk announced that Twitter would be implementing rate limits on viewing tweets, which received backlash from users.
Dorsey acknowledged the difficulties of managing Twitter and the immense constraints his team faces. While he admitted to critiquing decisions from a distance, he emphasized that the goal is for Twitter to thrive. He assured users that the team is doing their best under the circumstances.
Musk had previously announced temporary tweet-viewing rate limits due to excessive data scraping from AI companies. This decision came shortly after the platform experienced over 13,000 outage reports in the US and UK. Users received notifications stating that they were rate limited and asked to wait before trying again.
In addition to the rate limits, Musk also mentioned that users would need to sign in to view tweets, and tweet previews would not be shown when links are shared on other platforms.
Dorsey responded to these new restrictions by expressing his hope that Twitter would build on censorship-resistant open protocols, such as Bitcoin. He believes these protocols are essential for preserving the open internet and benefiting everyone.
It’s worth noting that Dorsey stepped down as CEO in November 2021 and was replaced by Parag Agrawal, who was subsequently fired by Musk after he acquired Twitter for $44 billion.
Throughout the day, Musk revised the number of tweets accounts could view. Initially, he stated that verified accounts could read 6,000 posts per day, while unverified and newly created unverified accounts would be limited to 600 and 300 posts, respectively. However, he later increased the rate limits to 8,000 for verified accounts, 800 for unverified accounts, and 400 for newly created unverified accounts. Finally, he changed the limits once again to 10k, 1k, and 0.5k, respectively.
Insider reached out to Twitter for comment but did not receive a response. The company has adjusted its policy for interacting with the media this year.
In conclusion, Jack Dorsey admits that running Twitter is a challenging task, while Elon Musk implements rate limits on tweet viewing. Both believe in the importance of preserving the open internet, but their decisions have sparked criticism from users. As Twitter continues to navigate these obstacles, the hope is for the platform to thrive while addressing the concerns of its users.
