Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor On Friday, Twitter — without notice — suddenly blocked access to the website for anyone who isn’t signed in as a registered user.
Many people were confused about the change, wondering whether it was a glitch or a purposeful move on the part of Twitter, which is under the control of mega-billionaire Elon Musk.
Previously, you could search Twitter and view tweets without needing a registered account. But now, visiting any Twitter page displays a log-in prompt instead.
Musk, in a post Friday afternoon, claimed that Twitter took the step to improve performance on the platform after third-party companies were “scraping” data and overloading its systems. “Temporary emergency measure,” he tweeted. “We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!” In another tweet, Musk said, “Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience.” He added, “What should we do to stop that?
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