A copy cat move? Elon Musk mocks Threads' decision to implement Twitter-like rate limits

After Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the introduction of rate limits on Threads, Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, responded to the news by labeling it a 'copy cat' move.

Mosseri posted on Threads, "Spam attacks have picked up so we're going to have to get tighter on things like rate limits, which is going to mean more unintentionally limiting active people (false positives). If you get caught up those protections let us know."

Later, when a Twitter user posted a screenshot of Mosseri's post, Musk replied, "Lmaooo." "Copy *cat emoji*."

Earlier this month, Twitter made a parallel announcement of implementing a rate limit on its platform. Elon Musk, the owner and CTO of Twitter, attributed this decision to data scraping by emerging AI startups. Initially, Twitter permitted paid users to access up to 6,000 posts per day, while unverified users were restricted to 600 posts. However, later on, the limits were adjusted, allowing Verified accounts to view up to 10,000 posts, unverified accounts to see 1,000 posts, and new, unverified accounts to access 500 posts.

What is the difference between Threads and Twitter in this move?

Following the recent update, certain Threads users may encounter restrictions on the number of posts they can view daily, which could potentially impact their overall app experience. Nevertheless, unlike Twitter's approach of imposing strict limits on the number of posts users can see, Mosseri, the head of Instagram, is advocating a more user-friendly approach. He suggested that if users come across a rate limit, they can reach out to the Threads team for assistance. This implies that the Threads team is willing to assist genuine users and is committed to preserving a positive user experience, avoiding unnecessary disruptions.

In response to Mosseri's announcement, many users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the growing issue of comment spam on the platform. Several individuals have reported an increasing number of bots promoting gambling or using "bait" messages, with some mentioning that almost half of their posts receive such automated replies. Another user complained about spending a significant amount of time blocking bots that advertise gambling and cryptocurrency websites.

On the other hand, Elon Musk made an announcement of his own, stating that he intends to enhance the user experience for verified users. As a result, he has increased the limit for viewable posts for verified accounts by half, allowing them to now see up to 15,000 posts per day.