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A few days after Elon Musk implemented restrictions on the number of tweets users can read per day rule, TweetDeck users have reported a spike in problems, including notifications not loading and entire columns failing to appear.
Initially, Musk enforced a read limit of 6,000 daily posts for verified users and 600 daily posts for unverified users. However, he later increased these limits to 10,000 tweets and 1,000 tweets, respectively.
TweetDeck, which loads multiple tweets simultaneously through various columns, seems to be much affected by these new rules.
Molly White observed numerous errors when using TweetDeck, especially after the app had been open for a few minutes. Users have also reported issues with loading columns, such as notifications, mentions, and likes, despite their home timelines loading properly.
While Elon Musk attributes Twitter’s problems to aggressive web scrapers, others argue that the site’s difficulties may be self-inclined. Developer Sheldon Chang claims that Twitter’s own code is overwhelming the site with content requests, creating a situation similar to a distributed denial of service (DDOS)attack.
Chang shared videos demonstrating repeat requests from Twitter for content that never loads. The absence of a media relations team following recent layoffs at Twitter prevents further clarification on these allegations, reported Forbes.
“Twitter is firing off about 10 requests a second to itself to try and fetch content that never arrives because Elon’s latest genius innovation is to block people from being able to read Twitter without logging in,” said Chang.
Twitter also restricted viewing tweets without a login to combat data scraping by individuals or companies seeking to train AI models. Musk justified these measures as a “temporary emergency” because Twitter was subjected to “data pillaging,” which negatively impacted user experience. However, the restrictions imposed by Musk have also adversely affected user experience, as even verified users quickly reach rate limits on the platform.
TweetDeck, owned and maintained by Twitter, has seen limited development in recent years. Last year, it was withdrawn as a standalone app and made available exclusively as a web app. However, an awaited update for TweetDeck is in progress, as confirmed by TweetDeck’s Twitter status. Speculation has been ongoing that the company may transition TweetDeck into a paid feature.
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