In a recent development, Twitter has introduced a new policy requiring users to possess an account on the platform in order to view tweets.
Elon Musk, the owner of the popular social media platform, referred to this measure as a “temporary emergency” in a tweet on Friday.
Users attempting to access content on Twitter will now be prompted to either sign up for an account or log into their existing accounts to view their preferred tweets. Musk justified this move by stating that Twitter was experiencing significant data pilfering, which was negatively impacting the service for regular users. He highlighted that numerous organizations were aggressively scraping Twitter data, resulting in a compromised user experience.
Notably, Musk has previously expressed his dissatisfaction with artificial intelligence firms, such as OpenAI (the owner of ChatGPT), utilizing Twitter’s data to train their large language models. He expressed intent to take legal action against those responsible for data theft, anticipating a court battle in the next two to three years.
Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in May, requesting an audit of the tech giant’s use of Twitter’s content. The letter alleged that Microsoft had violated an agreement regarding the utilization of Twitter’s data by the Windows developer.
Under Musk’s ownership, Twitter has implemented various measures to regain advertisers who had left the platform and increase subscription revenue. This includes incorporating verification check marks into the Twitter Blue program. Additionally, Twitter plans to focus on video, creator, and commerce partnerships as part of its strategy to revive the company’s business beyond digital advertising.
In line with these changes, Twitter has also begun charging users for access to its application programming interface (API), which is widely used by third-party applications and researchers.
