People can now view tweets without needing to log in to Twitter

In response to the launch of rival app ‘Threads’ by Instagram, Twitter has made a significant decision to allow users to view tweets without requiring a login. Previously, Twitter had announced that account verification would be necessary to access tweets, causing frustration among subscribers who sought alternative apps like Bluesky, Spill, and Mastodon due to the restricted number of daily posts they could read.

Interestingly, tweets have started appearing on other platforms such as Slack, WhatsApp, and iMessage. The initial login requirement was implemented by Twitter in an effort to prevent data scraping, following concerns raised by Elon Musk about chatGPT and other bot companies extracting data from Twitter. Musk clarified that the change was meant to be temporary and necessary due to excessive data pillaging, which was affecting the service for regular users.

Twitter has removed the login requirement altogether, allowing anyone to access tweets simply by browsing, without the need to create an account or log in. However, the company has not made an official announcement regarding this move or provided details about the steps taken to address data scraping concerns.

The decision to remove login requirements coincided with the launch of ‘Threads,’ Twitter’s rival messaging app owned by Meta. Surprisingly, the app has already gained nearly 2 million subscribers in a short span of time. It remains to be seen if Meta will adopt a similar approach as Twitter and allow users to access posts without requiring an account once the app is officially launched.

Elon Musk, known for his involvement with Twitter, recently implemented read limits on the platform. Verified users can now read a certain number of tweets per day, while non-verified users have a limit of 1,000 posts per day. Initially, unverified and new users faced even lower limits of 300 posts. However, Musk later increased the limits to 8,000 for verified accounts, 800 for unverified accounts, and 400 for new unverified accounts. Further adjustments were made to raise the limits to 1,000 for non-verified users and 10,000 for verified users.

Twitter claims that only a small number of users have been affected by these changes and justifies them as necessary measures to combat spam and bot activity, ensuring the authenticity of its user base. In a blog post, Twitter stated, “To ensure the authenticity of our user base, we must take extreme measures to remove spam and bots from our platform.”

Twitter’s decision to allow users to access tweets without login comes at a crucial time when competitors are attempting to challenge its dominance in the social media landscape.