Why has Twitter restricted its own tweets?

On Saturday Twitter began to restrict however galore tweets its users could read.

Elon Musk tweeted that unverified users could work 1,000 tweets, and verified users 10,000.

People began to stock screengrabs of messages that they'd "exceeded" their regular allowance of tweets.

Elon Musk was doing thing that seems unfathomable for a societal media institution - helium was limiting idiosyncratic activity.

The determination has baffled advertizing executives.

However this is portion of a overmuch longer crippled that Elon Musk is playing - a conflict with AI companies.

Let's archetypal commencement disconnected with however Twitter really makes money. The immense bulk of its gross comes from advertising, conscionable similar Meta and Google.

When users spell onto the platform, they're served ads. The much clip they walk connected Twitter, the much ads they see. The equation is beauteous simple. That's the business.

However, Elon Musk has traditionally eschewed advertising. Tesla famously doesn't bash ads.

In 2019 helium tweeted "I hatred advertising".

And yet he's bought a institution that is wholly reliant connected it.

So, Elon Musk is hopeless to make antithetic gross streams.

This is not conscionable a concern decision. He believes that advertisers clasp excessively overmuch powerfulness implicit societal media companies erstwhile it comes to moderation.

Advertisers can, and have, pulled their wealth from Twitter.

Advertisers don't privation their ads placed adjacent to racist oregon extremist content. And truthful Twitter's main gross watercourse besides has an power implicit however overmuch "free speech" is allowed connected the platform.

However Mr Musk has different program to crook Twitter into a profitable company.

He wants Twitter to marque wealth retired of the immense magnitude of information it holds.

Platforms similar Twitter and Reddit clasp a treasure trove of hundreds of billions of existent quality conversations - an unthinkable assets for AI companies.

Large connection models (LLMs), tin larn from these interactions, and enactment retired however to respond to questions successful much human-like ways.

But platforms similar Twitter and Reddit privation to beryllium paid for the usage of their information successful this way.

In April, Reddit's main enforcement Steve Huffman told the New York Times that helium was unhappy with what AI companies were doing.

"The Reddit corpus of information is truly valuable," helium said. "But we don't request to springiness each of that worth to immoderate of the largest companies successful the satellite for free."

On Saturday it became wide however frustrated Mr Musk was getting.

"We were getting information pillaged" helium said.

"Almost each institution doing AI, from start-ups to immoderate of the biggest corporations connected Earth, was scraping immense amounts of data," helium said.

And so, by restricting usage, Elon Musk is hoping to forestall its information from being pulled into LLMs. He wants to negociate with AI companies and get paid for the contented that they take.

But determination could beryllium different factors astatine play too, and it goes backmost to different 1 of his attempts to alteration Twitter's reliance connected advertizing revenue.

Mr Musk is hopeless for radical to wage for Twitter.

For months, he's been trying to propulsion radical towards Twitter Blue. There's been immoderate carrot, giving Twitter Blue members a bluish tick and verification, and immoderate instrumentality - removing verification from users that don't pay.

But Twitter Blue has not been what Elon Musk had hoped. People aren't paying up successful their droves.

Perhaps he's looking astatine different mode to get users to unfastened their wallets. In future, if privation entree to unlimited tweets, possibly you'll person to wage a monthly fee?

Whatever Mr Musk is thinking, 1 happening is wide though. Restricting tweets is not bully for advertisers.

The limits are "remarkably bad" for users and advertisers already shaken by the "chaos" astatine Twitter, Mike Proulx, probe manager astatine Forrester, told Reuters.

This is possibly the astir perplexing portion of Elon Musk's restrictions. He has precocious hired Linda Yaccarino to beryllium Twitter's main executive. She's a erstwhile advertizing executive.

She reportedly has grandiose ideas for however Twitter tin marque much wealth - including full-screen video ads and trying to person much celebrities to usage the app.

Her occupation is made acold harder by having restricted tweets. Fewer eyeballs connected posts means advertisers volition beryllium little funny successful spending money.

Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly launching a Twitter clone, called Threads, astatine immoderate constituent this summer. The chances that determination volition beryllium restrictions connected its feed, connected however galore posts you tin read, are zero. That is not the Meta way.

Elon Musk is an extraordinarily palmy businessman, and helium has a genuine gripe erstwhile it comes to AI companies ripping disconnected its data. But this weekend's events person been different caput scratcher.