HN Explorer

Tell HN: Twitter is now rate limiting accounts

52 points by bundie ↗ HN
Okay, so I was browsing Twitter on my phone and then suddenly, tweets stopped loading. I thought it was the app acting up, so I copied the link to the tweet I was reading and opened it in my mobile browser.

Everything worked fine for like 10 minutes until, the tweets stopped loading (again) and now there is a messageplastered on the screen saying that I am rate-limited. What? I don't even tweet that much. In fact, I cannot even remember the last time I tweeted. Is anyone else experiencing this?

49 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 110 ms ] thread
r721
It's a glitch, many people report it in reddit thread:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Twitter/comments/14ntk2k/rate_limit...

For me (web version in Chrome):

Home page - "Something went wrong. Try reloading."

Individual tweets - "Sorry, you are rate limited. Please wait a few moments then try again." + "Something went wrong. Try reloading."

Interestingly, lists still work as usual.

UPD1 There's a spike of reports: https://downdetector.com/status/twitter/

UPD2 Lists also display "Something went wrong. Try reloading." intermittingly now, spike on downdetector keeps growing

bundie
Oh thank Goodness, I thought I was suspended.
Cetrales
You have to pay 8 dollars a month now to load/refresh pages more than 5 times per day or post more than once a day.
activiation
That's only if there was no videos on the page.
protoc
Get you addicted and start charging
Rumpeltier
Hi.. i have the same problem.. i cannoz see any tweets on my laptop, but it works on iphone and ipad.. i am using the APP on both and on Macbook i use the Browser... but no matter which browser i use on my laptop.. i am "rate limites".-.. This really sucks, as twitter already closed one of my accountws due to "spamming".. no spam at all. just GA, and engagement.. thats what twitter is made for.. but if they now start censoring, and limiting acconts just for doing what their APP is made for..?? i dont understand??

Ay idea, how i can get into it again?

cheers

wmark
Saw it right now and I thought Elon masked me as a "bot"

Hes fighting bots but harming actual users

Smth tells me hes not good at handling tech stuff. Hes better a CEO of twitter vs technical role

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
zy_mmm
happened to me too its very annoying
ErneX
Same issue here. Only DMs work. Can’t even search.
raverbashing
Twitter just apparently broke as well, I can't load any tweets
aws_ls
Same for me. Nothing works. It just displays a rate limiting message.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
aphlaum
Bruh i thought twitter was down
3cats-in-a-coat
It is down. For many. I also get the "rate limit exceeded" errors, I'm not even a heavy user.
netjoshi
Kind of relieving to see that others are also having this issue.
smy20011
It's fine that website down. How can it down 3 hrs? Where are the engineers?
sp332
It's intentional. https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-users-bein... It's to prevent web scraping by people trying to avoid paying for API access.
soneca
I don’t think it’s intentional. I got a “rate limit exceeded” on the official mobile app while on an account where I follow only 17 people and don’t post anything.

Edit: funny that I have two profiles logged in the same app. One is working, the other is not.

trompetenaccoun
They likely changed something and unintentionally messed things up. Many users are reporting issues, even those using the official Twitter app.
DaveChild
Funny, isn't it. They ruin API access and overcharge for it, so everyone scrapes, and in trying to stop that they ruin the product for the users, without whom it's worth nothing.

Reddit, take note, this is you in 6 months.

AliNabel
this is tough for Elon to fight against, companies fighting like dogs for getting the data for free. if he goes too hard, he'll harm harmless users.
Nimitz14
I think this could actually be kind of a genius way to get power users to pay.

The danger is of course that you lose the content creators.

wmark
I don't think he'll lose content creators cuz they monetize their content

Paying $8 for em is a biz expense

ErneX
Tweet from Elon:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1675187969420828672

TheLoafOfBread
I mean, can you just copy it here? Since yesterday nobody can access Twitter without login.
cadooo
NHL Free Agency started today. Lots of people getting hit with the limits. The hockey analysts on TV have been complaining about it. Up until now it's been a big source of this type of information. Not a good look.
kgbcia
Hopefully with what's going on with Reddit and Twitter, people realize the importance of self hosting their own content. Great timing for Bluesky