By
In an announcement made on June 30, Twitter revealed a new policy requiring users to have an account on their platform in order to view tweets. This decision, labeled a “temporary emergency measure” by owner Elon Musk, aims to address concerns about data privacy and service degradation due to aggressive scraping of Twitter data by numerous organizations.
Under the new policy, individuals attempting to access content on Twitter will be prompted to either create an account or log into an existing one to view their favorite tweets. Musk expressed frustration with the extensive data pilfering, which had a detrimental impact on the experience of regular users.
Elon Musk has previously voiced his disapproval of artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI, utilizing Twitter’s data to train their large language models. He asserted that legal action would be taken against those who unlawfully obtained Twitter’s data, with a projected timeline of 2 to 3 years before the matter reaches the court.
In a letter addressed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in May, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, requested that the tech giant conduct an audit to examine its use of Twitter’s content. The allegation was that Microsoft had violated an agreement regarding the utilization of the social media company’s data.
To regain the trust of advertisers who had left the platform during Musk’s ownership and to generate additional subscription revenue, Twitter has implemented several strategies. One such measure involves incorporating verification check marks into the Twitter Blue program. Additionally, the company plans to focus on video, creator, and commerce partnerships to diversify its business beyond digital advertising.
Furthermore, Twitter has begun charging users for access to its application programming interface (API), which is commonly utilized by third-party applications and researchers.
