This time, Twitter had to step back

In an unanticipated change, Twitter has quietly abolished the necessity for users to log in to view tweets, effectively allowing any individual to access Twitter links via their web browsers without an account. This development was first spotted by TechCrunch when tweet previews started to be visible on widely used messaging platforms like Slack, WhatsApp, and iMessage, as mentioned by Engadget.

Initially, the need for login was implemented by Twitter as a short-term measure to prevent data scraping, which was causing service disruption for routine users, as explained by Elon Musk. Despite this, Twitter has not issued any formal declarations regarding the recent change or detailed how they tackled the concerns around data scraping.

This time, Twitter had to step back

The timing of Twitter's decision coincides interestingly with the forthcoming launch of Meta's new text-based app, Threads. Briefly, Threads also permitted users to view posts on the web without the need for login, only to remove this feature later. Whether Threads will take a leaf out of Twitter's book and allow users to access posts without a necessary account at the time of its official launch is yet to be seen.

Over and above this change, Elon Musk also introduced read limits on Twitter over the weekend. As a result, unverified users can now only access up to 1,000 posts per day, while verified users have a cap of 10,000 posts per day. Twitter maintains that these changes have affected only a small fraction of users, and the repercussions on advertising have been insignificant, as indicated in a recent company blog post.

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