How To Get Around Twitter’s Rule That Limits Users to Just 600 Tweets

Elon Musk, Twitter’s CEO announced on Saturday a policy that will limit most users to only 600 tweets a day. But there does appear to be one workaround that hasn’t been restricted yet: Tweetdeck.

Twitter users were confused on Saturday after many people reported getting an error message that reads “rate limit exceeded.” Many assumed Twitter was down, but the site’s billionaire owner explained on Twitter that new limitations had been put in place, allowing verified users to read just 6,000 posts per day, while regular users would be limited to reading 600 posts per day. Even new accounts are restricted with only 300 daily posts.

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Can users get around the new restrictions? Visit Twitter first and log into your account. tweetdeck.twitter.com. You’ll be asked to add your account and the website has the option of providing a guided tour on how Tweetdeck works.

Tweetdeck allows users to create columns with specialized parameters, including a user’s lists or even a specific keyword search. Users can also create a column that’s just for direct messages or organize all of the lists in a system called Decks.

The user can customize the columns, by changing their width or by viewing tweets chronologically or in reverse chronological order. Unfortunately, Tweetdeck isn’t available in a mobile app, but it can be opened in a phone’s internet browser. This solution isn’t ideal, obviously, but it’s the best workaround I’ve found so far. This worked until Musk decided that Tweetdeck would be rated.

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Musk said the new restrictions were put in place due to “extreme levels of data scraping” and “system manipulation,” though plenty of users speculated there were other motives. Media critic Jay Rosen speculated that Twitter’s “verification” system, which allows anyone to buy a blue checkmark at $8 per month, was not selling very well and Musk was trying to push users to buy it.

But other speculated Musk was intentionally trying to sabotage the site, a claim for which there isn’t much evidence. That being said, if you wanted to absolutely decimate any social media platform the first thing you’d do is limit how much content someone could view.

“This kills the ad revenue, but also kills the main usecase (news/doomscrolling), so I’m interested in what the plan is now,” one user explained.

Twitter’s automated system responded on Saturday to questions sent via email with the emoji poop. This response is for all journalists. Musk, 52, created the automated response not long after purchasing the company in Oct 2022.

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Whatever is going on, Twitter users aren’t very happy with the changes. And it remains to be seen how long they’ll be in place.