As Twitter enforced new restrictions on the number of tweets permitted, you might have noticed your profile acting strangely Wednesday afternoon.
The app has unexpectedly decided to narrow how many times a user can tweet. The daily limit is 2,400. Semi-hourly restrictions are also in place, but that number is unclear. Retweets will count towards the maximum. If you’ve been on Twitter long enough, then you remember the former limitations placed on profiles if they tweeted too much in one day. The app would block further tweets from being sent out until a specific timeframe has passed. The latest update is similar to that but also seems to be impacting direct messaging, as the feature was down as well on Wednesday.
Per the new regulations, users will receive a message instructing them to try again a few hours after the limit has been reached. A maximum of 500 direct messages can be sent daily, and only 400 accounts can be followed daily. Another odd implementation is the overall follow cap. Individual accounts are no longer allowed to follow more than 5,000 accounts.
These restrictions are sure to seriously strain business accounts, particularly media outlets. During breaking news events, tweets can go out rapidly as new developments arise. Meaning it is likely that a news outlet could easily utilize 2,400 tweets in a day. The 500 DM limit can also hinder companies with customer service accounts, such as Spectrum and DoorDash.
Elon Musk sent an email asking staff to halt the update in light of the errors. The glitch lasted for about 90 minutes, after which users were able to tweet and DM again.
