If you see a message that says “Quota Limit Exceeded» on Twitter, you should know that the reason is that the social network has temporarily limited the messages that each tweeter can see and read per day.
This is a measure that the owner of the company, the eccentric Elon Musk, has announced – not without controversy – through various messages posted on his account on the social network.
To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits:
– Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day
– Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day
– New unverified accounts to 300/day— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
As Musk points out, Twitter has had to apply “time limits” to address “the extreme levels of data extraction and manipulation of the system.” That is to say, the activity on Twitter was being so high that the company’s servers could not withstand the pressure and Musk was forced to order that access to its systems be limited. The Downdetector website itself had reported numerous Twitter crashes around the world and connection problems.
This sets a precedent and means that, from now on, when the company’s servers are overwhelmed, Twitter may apply this measure again.
Therefore, you know what the reason is if at any time that message appears on Twitter, reminiscent of more than a decade ago, when Twitter showed the image of its popular whale when the servers were overloaded. The whale stopped being used in 2013.
What are the limits imposed by Twitter
As Elon Musk explained in his message thread at first, the established time limits are as follows.
Verified accounts of the social network – and therefore subscribed to the Twitter Blue service – are limited to reading 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts to 600 posts per day and new unverified accounts to 300 posts per day. .
However, given the avalanche of complaints received from many tweeters, who took advantage of their accounts on the social network to express their discontent, Elon Musk pointed out a few hours after publishing that message that the limits would be extended to 8,000 posts a day for verified accounts, 800 for unverified accounts, and 400 for new unverified accounts.
Hours later, he also indicated that the limit would become 10,000, 1,000 and 500 tweets per day, respectively. This means that, as the company manages to restore the normal operation of its servers, the limitation is extended and, therefore, it is temporary.
Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT, possible causes
What Elon Musk has not clarified is how the messages that each user can see begin to be counted. If it happens when consulting specific messages or if only the messages are shown in the chronology, they are already counted among those that can be seen at most per day.
Musk, who pointed out that the measure was exceptional and that it was due “to the extreme levels of data extraction”, has repeatedly expressed his discontent about the use of Artificial Intelligence to extract information.
In this sense, companies like OpenAI, owner of ChatGPT, use Twitter data to train their large language models. “It’s quite galling to have to bring a large number of servers online in an emergency just to facilitate the outrageous tasks of some AI startups,” Musk said.
It must also be taken into account that, after the purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk has fired more than 80% of the workforce he had in 2022. This may also explain why the social network’s systems have been left more vulnerable by not have adequate maintenance or have enough personnel for its management.
Controversial comments from Elon Musk
In addition to blaming Artificial Intelligence, Elon Musk has also taken the opportunity to post some humorous messages to explain the incident. For example, he has indicated that the measure is taken so that people who spend too much time obsessed with Twitter can be more in touch with their family and friends in the outside world.
you awake from a deep trance,
step away from the phone
to see your friends & family— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2023
In this same sense, he has also retweeted messages from parody accounts that imitate his comments and that have indicated that Elon Musk “was doing what the world needs” to save those obsessed with Twitter.
