Twitter has made another major change that has significantly impacted its usage. For users who are not logged in (or registered) on the social network, it has started blocking content, which means without a user’s account on Twitter, people will not be able to view other people’s posts or accounts. That is, there is no main reason they use this platform. Elon Musk justified this move by saying that he was trying to prevent massive data collection by companies. There are also restrictions on reading posts.

That Twitter is gradually changing after the arrival of Elon Musk, who bought the popular social network last year for a large sum of money, is not surprising. After all, the goal is to make Twitter a profitable company, which is borne by the employees it lays off en masse and by users who Twitter slowly becomes less accessible if they don’t subscribe every month. But now, suddenly, a change has occurred that will be felt by many.

Until recently, it was possible – and very common – to view a user’s public profile without logging into your account. In fact, you don’t even need to have an account if you don’t want to interact with those tweets. But maybe that’s enough for you because you go to Twitter for new information. However, Twitter has now disabled this option. And after clicking the link to Twitter, it asks you to register, e.g. enter.

Logically, one of the things that made Twitter so useful – sharing – is disappearing. Not everyone has a Twitter account, but what if they had the opportunity to spread the word to others and thereby fulfill the essential essence of social networking, namely the rapid transmission of information. Users also report that previews on search engines or on other platforms are also blocked. Connecting suddenly stopped working.

It’s no surprise that debate has raged around this change – where else but on Twitter. Musk himself commented on some of this, setting things straight. He points out that this isn’t a mistake, but a targeted move: “Hundreds of organizations are very aggressive about collecting data from Twitter, to the point where it impacts the user experience. What must we do to stop it? I’m open to ideas.” he wrote

Such an answer sent right under the post of Tim Sweeney, founder and head of video game development company Epic Games (creator Fortnite), who tweeted about how he was “the internet today is broken because of various bans and advertisements”. And along with that, he also mentioned a new block for Twitter users who are not logged in. At the same time, his decision is a bit odd considering what he started last year.

In 2022, he hired software engineer George Hotz to improve the search function and remove the login prompts that prevented unregistered users from browsing. But Hotz stopped short of even halfway through his twelve-week apprenticeship, saying he was “he didn’t think he could have any real influence there”. In April this year, Twitter completely dropped the search function for unregistered users.

Post view limit

However, it is important to mention that Elon Musk, whose role as boss will be replaced by a new executive director recently, regards this change as a “temporary emergency measures”, so it is expected to continue to grow. But some time ago on Twitter statedthat he introduced a limiting system for reading posts, which he thinks should be too “temporary”. And that should serve appropriately against the aforementioned data collection limitations.

In practice, this means that verified accounts will be allowed to read a maximum of six thousand posts per day, while unverified accounts will be allowed to read “only” six hundred – roughly fifteen to twenty minutes of Twitter browsing on the mobile app. And those joining the “new” Twitter will be limited to three hundred tweets per day.