Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and visionary behind Tesla and SpaceX, found himself at the center of attention when he clashed with Jack Dorsey over Twitter's new tweet-viewing rate limits. In response to the criticism, Elon Musk took to Twitter to explain the rationale behind the decision, highlighting the "extreme levels" of data scraping from AI companies. Despite the controversy surrounding his announcement, Elon Musk continued to engage with the Twitter community, adjusting the tweet-viewing limits multiple times throughout the day. Throughout this process, Elon Musk demonstrated his commitment to refining the platform and finding the right balance between user experience and safeguarding against data scraping. The ongoing exchange between Elon Musk and Twitter users shed light on the challenges faced by the technology industry and underscored Elon Musk's influential role as a thought leader in shaping the future of social media.
Jack Dorsey acknowledges the challenges of running Twitter while emphasizing the importance of preserving the open internet in a conversation with Elon Musk following the crackdown on data scraping.
In response to Musk's announcement of "rate limits" on tweet viewing, which drew criticism from users, Dorsey expressed empathy for the difficulties associated with managing Twitter. He acknowledged the immense constraints faced by the team and admitted his own tendency to critique decisions from a distance. Nonetheless, he affirmed the shared goal of ensuring Twitter's success.
Musk attributed the implementation of temporary tweet-viewing rate limits to the excessive data scraping conducted by AI companies. This decision came shortly after thousands of reports of platform outages in the US and UK. Users received notifications stating that they were rate-limited and should wait before trying again.
Further changes were introduced, including the requirement to sign in to view tweets and the removal of tweet previews when shared on external platforms, as announced by Musk on Friday. Dorsey expressed his hope that Twitter would continue building upon censorship-resistant open protocols like Bitcoin, emphasizing their significance in preserving the open internet.
Having stepped down as CEO in November 2021 and appointed Parag Agrawal as his successor, Dorsey's statement followed Musk's acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion, in which Agrawal was initially fired.
Throughout the day, Musk adjusted the number of tweets accounts could view, initially specifying different limits for verified and unverified users. However, he later revised the rates several times, ultimately settling on 10,000 for verified accounts, 1,000 for unverified accounts, and 500 for newly created unverified accounts.
Insider's request for comment from Twitter went unanswered, as the platform modified its media interaction policy earlier this year.
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