Threads takes the Twitter route, imposes rate limit on posts

Meta's recently-announced Threads has introduced Twitter-like rate limits in a bid to counter spam attacks. As expected, Twitter owner Elon Musk reacted to Meta's decision to take the Twitter route to limit posts, calling it a copycat move.

To recap, Musk announced temporary daily limits on Twitter ahead of Threads' debut on July 5. As a result, the Twitterverse couldn't access all as many tweets as they want. Apparently, this limitation was Twitter's attempt to curb data scraping and system manipulation.

However, Musk later eased the rate limits for Twitter Blue subscribers and verified accounts. Following in the footsteps of its biggest rival, Threads has now announced its own rate limits for users. Details about the duration of its rate limits are still scarce.

Meta is trying to combat spam attacks

According to a post by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, the decision to limit posts on Threads is part of Meta's attempt to combat a surge in spam attacks. Nearly half of the users' posts have bot responses, which is an alarming increase in comment spam. Nevertheless, Threads says it is ready to help users who are facing limitations.

This issue can hinder the app's momentum, despite reaching an impressive milestone of 100 million users within just five days of its debut. Interestingly, Twitter faces similar challenges. As a result, the social media platform has set different limits for verified and unverified users.

Twitter decided to increase these limits for its verified users. Some critics attribute Twitter's bot problem to Musk's decision to reduce its engineering staff. Notably, it is equally important for Threads to effectively address its bot and spam issues if Meta wants to launch it in Europe.

To those unaware, Threads is currently unavailable in Europe citing strict data privacy regulations. Meanwhile, UK marketing agency JDR Group is urging business owners to avoid jumping on the Threads bandwagon without sufficient planning. The UK marketing firm claims SMEs are likely to lose valuable time if they don't approach the platform with caution.

Impact on influencers and content creators

The folks at GizmoChina point out that this situation affects influencers who use social media platforms for monetisation. So, it is important for social media platforms like Twitter and Threads to provide users with a spam-free environment. While it is necessary to combat spam, these measures should not restrict influencers from engaging with their followers.

In his latest Threads post, Zuckerberg pointed out that "tens of millions of people" are returning to the app. Moreover, data shared by Sensor Tower shows Threads was downloaded a whopping 374,000 unique users in its first month. Earlier this month, Sensor Tower also revealed that there is a drop in Threads' engagement.

Managing director at Sensor Tower Anthony Bartolacci told CNBC, "the first 72 hours of Threads was truly in a class by itself." However, Bartolacci claims there was a major drop after that. In fact, active users were down by 20 per cent in less than a week. Also, the time spent by the users was down from 20 minutes to 10 minutes.

Difference between Twitter's and Threads' rate limits

Musk responded to Mosseri's post stating, "Lmaooo Copy." However, it is worth noting that Threads did not impose strict post limitations like Twitter. According to Mosseri, Threads users can reach out for assistance if they face similar problems on the app. So, it is safe to say that Threads is sparing no effort to provide genuine content creators with a seamless experience.

After Twitter introduced the new rate limits, some users reported they were unable to see tweets without logging into the microblogging website. Verified Twitter accounts could read 6,000 posts per day, while unverified Twitter users were able to see only 600 posts. Meanwhile, recently verified accounts were allowed to see only 300 posts per day.

However, Musk eventually decided to ease the limits, allowing verified accounts to see 10,000 posts a day. Similarly, unverified and new unverified accounts can now see ,1000 and 500 posts per day, respectively. On the downside, this move negatively impacts accounts run by journalists, informational agencies, and monitoring services that review hundreds of tweets every day.