New Delhi: Elon Musk has announced a new mandate for those who do not have a Twitter account. What this means is that if you don’t have a Twitter account, the social media website is off your limits. You can no longer view tweets if you are not a Twitter user yourself. The previous set-up allowed anyone with or without a Twitter account to at least view tweets if not interact with them or like them. But the new rule is not letting users get a free peak.
Why was this step taken?
Elon Musk has explained on Twitter that this measure was taken to address the problem of third-party scraping of data from the platform. Excessive data scraping was negatively impacting the service for regular users.
“Temporary emergency measure. We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!” he wrote.
The change implemented on Friday received widespread complaints online.
Since Musk took over as CEO in October, Twitter has undergone several changes. After losing significant advertisers, the platform introduced new subscription features, such as the option to put tweets behind a paywall for followers to access by paying a monthly fee. In April, Twitter announced that it would stop supporting its free API, instead charging companies up to $500,000 per year for its use. Critics expressed concerns that this could hinder public safety alerts and war-crime research.
