Unverified users will have a daily limit on sending DMs
© AP / Richard Drew
The tech giant has claimed that the measure is being introduced in order to cut down on spam, while encouraging users to sign up for TwitterBlue to get unrestricted access to the messaging service.
“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. Subscribe today to send more messages,” read the message from Twitter Support.
Many users took to Twitter to criticize the move arguing that the restrictions make no sense and are just yet another attempt to make more profit from Twitter Blue, by pushing users to pay for a blue checkmark.
Earlier this month, Twitter “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. The company said it was done to cut down on “extreme levels of data scraping”
The Twitter Support, however, argues that their anti-spam measures have been successful so far. The option to limit the Direct Messaging inbox to only verified users that was put in effect last week, has allegedly helped to reduce spam by 70%.
Twitter has been undergoing a major overhaul since being taken over by Elon Musk in October last year. One of the first moves was to introduce an $8 charge for the blue checkmark to make the network less reliant on ads.
“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” tweeted Musk at the time.
