Elon Musk has made verification mandatory for Twitter users in order to access TweetDeck — the online dashboard widely used by news organisations and various other businesses to organise and monitor content across the platform.
The development arrives just days after Musk imposed a limit on the number of tweets users can view a day, which sparked a wave of resentment and outrage online.
The announcement has further amplified concerns surrounding Twitter’s continuing struggle to retain advertisers. Since billionaire Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the company in October last year, Twitter has undergone sweeping organisational and product changes, majority of which have visibly caused a series of setbacks to the company.
Musk’s efforts aimed at making Twitter profitable have led to chaos on the platform and its declining desirability, driving away both users and advertisers.
After monetising the blue verification badge as part of Twitter’s subscription service called Twitter Blue — which initially backfired at a massive scale — Musk has now decided to put TweetDeck behind the paywall. The platform will soon require accounts to be verified so as to access or continue using TweetDeck, which, according to the company, will be upgraded.
“We have just launched a new, improved version of TweetDeck,” says Twitter, adding that users have 30 days to verify their accounts to access the dashboard.
We have just launched a new, improved version of TweetDeck. All users can continue to access their saved searches & workflows via https://t.co/2WwL3hNVR2 by selecting “Try the new TweetDeck” in the bottom left menu.
Some notes on getting started and the future of the product…
— Support (@Support) July 3, 2023
Last week, Musk shook Twitter users by announcing a daily read limit; 6,000 tweets for verified users, 600 for unverified, and 300 for new unverified users. Musk later increased the limit to 10,000, 1,000, and 500, respectively. Moreover, Twitter’s blocking of its API developer tools has already impacted a large number of independent researchers and emerging tech startups.
Rate limits increasing soon to 8000 for verified, 800 for unverified & 400 for new unverified https://t.co/fuRcJLifTn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
The limit was imposed to address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation, according to Musk. “It is rather galling to have to bring large numbers of servers online on an emergency basis just to facilitate some AI startup’s outrageous valuation.”
The read limit particularly impacted a number of journalists, monitoring agencies, and other businesses that require reviewing large volumes of tweets every day.
Last month, Twitter’s top content moderation official Ella Irwin departed amid the company’s struggles with Musk’s erratic changes across the troubled platform. She had been the head of trust and safety and her departure left Twitter in a more critical position as regulatory scrutiny mounted on the platform.
