Over the weekend, the implementation of a restrictive Twitter policy, which limited the number of posts users could read, led to a surge of users in Nigeria and other locations seeking an alternative platform. Many opted for Truth Social, a platform founded by former U.S. president Donald Trump in 2022, amidst the chaos caused by the policy.
New owner Elon Musk said Twitter was facing massive and aggressive data scraping by unnamed organizations that made user experience difficult.
“Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience,” he wrote.
Musk initially said verified accounts were limited to reading 6,000 posts a day, while unverified accounts will be limited to 600 posts a day and new unverified accounts limited to 300.
Later, he tweeted that, “Rate limits increasing soon to 8000 for verified, 800 for unverified & 400 for new unverified.” He subsequently raised the limits to 10,000, 1000 and 500.
– Exceeds the limit
Amid the chaos on Saturday, “#Goodbye Twitter” and “RIP Twitter” trended as users criticised the new measures and accused Musk of ruining the platform since taking over ownership last year.
Several users encountered access restrictions and received notifications stating they had “exceeded the limit” when attempting to view additional posts after an extended period of scrolling.
By Sunday, many users in Nigeria, South Africa and around the world urgently set up accounts on Truth Social, which until months ago was not available in Nigeria, triggering a temporary crash, according to Down Detector.
– Going Back
But as many turn to his platform, Mr Trump himself is planning a comeback to Twitter, a report says.
Trump is the big appeal for Truth Social and his return to Twitter is expected to be a challenge for the platform.
The former U.S. president was permanently banned from Twitter in 2021 shortly after the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Musk reversed the ban in November but Trump, who by then had already been on Truth Social for months, did not return.
Now, as he builds up a re-election bid back to the White House, and after an 18-month clause with Truth Social, which made the platform Trump’s primary social media outlet ended on June 22, Mr Trump is planning a return to Twitter, Axios reported.
The clause also gave Truth Social a six-hour exclusivity on all posts from his personal handle.
Axios quoted sources as referring to the attraction of a much larger audience on Twitter.
Despite being highly active on the platform, Trump’s Truth Social has 5.46 million followers there, compared to 86.7 million on Twitter. He is the ninth most-followed person on the platform.
Axios said Trump considered returning to Twitter at the end of Congress’ Jan. 6 hearings in December 2022, and his team even drafted possible tweets to post before he decided to stay back at the time.
Amid the chaos, Trump, in a light-hearted response, shared a meme on Truth Social, depicting a person heading towards his platform’s logo, with the caption: “When you log in to Twitter and find you’ve reached your limit.”
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