Elon Musk Announces Twitter Viewing Restrictions Due To 'System Manipulation'

Twitter owner Elon Musk announced some frustrating changes to the social media platform Saturday morning.

According to Musk, it was necessary to implement a "temporary emergency measure" limiting the ability of users to view tweets.

"To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we've applied the following temporary limits," Musk tweeted.

Those "temporary limits" varied depending on whether or not a user pays for the Twitter blue subscription service.

"Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day; Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day; New unverified accounts to 300/day," Musk continued.

He also said that service was being diminished for "normal users" due to data pillaging efforts.

"We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!" he wrote. 

"Almost every company doing AI, from startups to some of the biggest corporations on Earth, was scraping vast amounts of data. It is rather galling to have to bring large numbers of servers online on an emergency basis just to facilitate some AI startup’s outrageous valuation," Musk concluded.

System messages repeatedly hit users, saying: "Sorry, you are rate limited. Please wait a few moments then try again."

BERLIN, GERMANY DECEMBER 01: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Award 2020 on December 01, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images)

Elon Musk Announces Twitter Restrictions Changing Quickly

After many users expressed frustration with the platform's decision, Musk announced in the afternoon that the limits were already increasing.

Although still far below what's necessary for many users.

Twitter under Musk has added some extremely popular new features, but has also been a bit less reliable.

Verified users are able to upload long-form videos, post longer-form tweets, and edit their posts. Subscriptions have also become more prominent, offering popular accounts the opportunity to earn more income.

That said, disruptions are frustrating and seem to have become more common of late.

It's unclear when Twitter's service will be back to full functionality, but as of mid-afternoon Saturday, many were still locked out.