Twitter began displaying the warning of “Limit rate exceeded” on the afternoon of Saturday (1º). However, what appeared to be a bug in reality is purposeful: Elon Musk, the owner of the social network, said that it is a measure to relieve the servers, which are overloaded.
And there’s more: Musk decided to differentiate the amount of tweets each user can see throughout the day. It looks like this:
Verified accounts (including Twitter Blue subscribers): 6,000 tweets per day
Normal users: 600 tweets per day
Newly created accounts: 300 tweets per day
Data scraping complaint
Musk appears to be on a crusade against data scraping, the practice of tracking user posts. This conduct is done by companies that wish to set up databases. Presumably he was talking mainly about startups and organizations involved in artificial intelligence projects, which require large volumes of information.
Since yesterday, Twitter has been preventing non-logged-in users from viewing content posted on the platform. This measure is usually taken by websites/apps that want to better record user behavior, but it can also be a barrier to bots.
The entrepreneur said it was a temporary limit, but did not disclose a deadline. He also said that “soon” the daily limits will increase to 8,000, 800 and 400 tweets per day (respectively).
The subject resonates on the network itself. Several users claim (rightly) that 600 posts is too little. “Twitter’s over” ranks 6th on Trending Topics, while Tumblr (a supposed alternative?) ranks 5th. Left even for the late Orkut, which appears in the 15th position of the subjects of the moment.
Musk’s posts don’t mention the high cost of the servers that keep the platform up and running. Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, recently took it upon herself to negotiate directly with Google. The social network keeps the data inside the home, but uses Google Cloud technology to combat child abuse and spam.
The press of the United States reported that the debt would reach US$ 20 million, which exceeds R$ 95 million in direct conversion. As far as is known, Twitter also went a while without paying Amazon Web Services.
Duel of billions
As if there weren’t too many problems on the platform, Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a fight. Literally. The two businessmen negotiate a fight in the best UFC style. It could take place both in Las Vegas and at the Colosseum in Rome.
There is still no date for the showdown. Dana White, the executive behind the UFC, would be personally involved in the talks to produce the event — even though it’s not part of the official calendar. There would even be a philanthropic initiative behind the battle of tech titans.
It doesn’t hurt to remember the stark physical difference between the eventual combatants. Elon Musk is 52 years old and 1.86 meters. Zuckerberg is 39 years old and measures 1.71 meters. It counts in favor of the boss of Meta the fact that he has been training martial arts for almost two years. Meanwhile, Musk has always said he doesn’t like sports and has already warned that he won’t lose weight for UFC Big Tech (a name invented by this scribe).