Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey reacted to the uproar caused by Elon Musk's implementation of "view limits" on tweets, offering insights on the challenges of running the platform and the necessity of making difficult decisions.
Dorsey took to Twitter, expressing his understanding of the immense stress that comes with running the platform: "Running Twitter is hard. I don't wish that stress upon anyone. I trust that the team is doing their best under the constraints they have, which are immense."
He acknowledged his own tendency to critique decisions from a distance but affirmed his belief in Twitter's ability to thrive: "It's easy to critique the decisions from afar... which I'm guilty of... but I know the goal is to see Twitter thrive. It will."
Dorsey also shared his hope that Twitter would explore new avenues to ease the burden of managing content and maintain an open internet: "And I do hope they consider building on truly censorship-resistant open protocols like bitcoin and nostr to help ease that burden. Good for all, and critical to preserve the open internet."
Running Twitter is hard. I don’t wish that stress upon anyone. I trust that the team is doing their best under the constraints they have, which are immense. It’s easy to critique the decisions from afar…which I’m guilty of…but I know the goal is to see Twitter thrive. It will.
— jack (@jack) July 1, 2023
Musk's move to set limits on tweet views left users waking up to a glitchy platform, prompting explanations from him about the need to address data scraping and system manipulation.
Initially, the limits were set at 6,000 posts a day for "verified" users who pay a monthly subscription fee, 600 posts for "unverified" users, and 300 posts for new unverified users. However, Musk later revised these limits, allowing verified users to read up to 10,000 posts per day, while unverified users would have access to 1,000 posts, and new users 500 posts daily.