Headline Roundup • July 1st, 2023
Twitter Temporarily Blocks Unregistered Users From Viewing Tweets
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Twitter has temporarily blocked users not signed into an account from viewing Tweets, among other usage restrictions.
The Details: Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the company made the decision as a “temporary emergency measure” to prevent “data pillaging” that was negatively affecting the user experience.
For Context: Musk previously said he would take legal action against artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI, which used Twitter's data to train its large language models. In May, Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro sent Microsoft a letter asking it to conduct an audit of its use of Twitter's content, alleging it violated an agreement regarding the use of Twitter’s data.
Key Quotes: Musk replied to a critical Tweet from Epic Games CEO, Tim Sweeney, “Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience.” Musk later added, “We absolutely will take legal action against those who stole our data & look forward [sic] seeing them in court, which is (optimistically) 2 to 3 years from now.”
How The Media Covered It: The story was not widely covered by major news outlets. Journalists and users alike were confused as to why the change was implemented without announcement until Musk eventually provided context, resulting in critical coverage across the spectrum, and some news stories left without proper updates.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Twitter / The Verge
If you currently try to access Twitter without logging in to your user account, you may find you’re unable to see any of the content that was previously available to the wider public. Instead, you’ll likely be met with the Twitter window that asks you to either sign in to the platform or create a new account, effectively blocking you from viewing tweets and user profiles or browsing through threads unless you’re a registered Twitter user.
Several members of The Verge team have been able to replicate the issue, and it appears...
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Twitter will now require users to have an account on the social media platform to view tweets, a move that owner Elon Musk on Friday called a "temporary emergency measure".
Users who try to view content on the platform will be asked to sign up for an account or log into an exiting account to see their favorite tweets.
"We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!" Musk said in a tweet.
He added that hundreds of organizations or more were scraping Twitter...
Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images
Twitter appears to have made a major policy change Friday, limiting which users can view content on the platform.
The popular social media site appears to now be requiring users to log in or register with the site to view content, departing from the previous policy of allowing those without accounts to view content but not interact on the platform, such as liking or commenting, the Daily Caller News Foundation has found. The platform has seen a number of changes since Elon Musk struck a tentative deal to buy the...
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