Twitter is imposing new restrictions for unverified users on the platform, limiting the direct messages they can send. The move is an effort on part of Twitter to cut down on spam while also encourage users to sign up for the premium Twitter Blue, which will allow them to receive unrestricted messaging. Since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, the platform's advertising business has partially collapsed as marketers soured on the mass firings at the platform that gutted content moderation as well as on his management style.
In response, the tycoon has moved toward introducing payments and commerce through the platform in a search for new revenue.
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"We'll soon be implementing some changes in our effort to reduce spam in Direct Messages. Unverified accounts will have daily limits on the number of DMs they can send," Twitter Support said in a tweet on Saturday, adding that users should subscribe to send more messages.
Many users criticised the move, arguing that the restrictions are just another attempt to make more profit from Twitter Blue by pushing people to pay for it.
"They know this, they just want more money," commented one user. "In our opinion, this is a sales funnel to get more users verified and into Blue, not to combat spam," tweeted Autism Capital, an organisation.
"Just sell the damn website already man," a third user said.
Twitter had earlier "temporarily" limited unverified accounts to reading 800 posts per day, and new unverified accounts to 400 per day, while verified users were allowed to view up to 8,000 posts per day. That move too was meant to cut down "extreme levels of data scraping".
Apart from Twitter Blue, the company also introduced gold and silver ticks for brands and government figure, reinstating many high-profile accounts suspended by the previous Twitter leadership and introduce payments and commerce through the platform.
Twitter is thought to have around 200 million daily active users but it has suffered repeated technical failures since Mr Musk bought the app and sacked much of its staff.
Since then, many users and advertisers alike have responded adversely to the social media site's new charges for previously free services, changes to content moderation and the return of previously banned right-wing accounts.
Mr Musk said earlier this month that Twitter has lost roughly half of its advertising revenue since he took control in October.
