Twitter and Its ‘Old’ Requirement to Sign In
Twitter is an application that millions of people around the entire globe turn to for receiving news updates, national updates, learning new subjects, or simply just scrolling to find something humorous. However, in order to view posts of this nature, everyone was required to have an account associated with Twitter. “Prior to this change which seems to have rolled out on Thursday or Friday, people are now unable to browse the web version of Twitter if they’re not signed into an account,” according to ComicBook. If the user did not have an account, they would not be able to view almost any posts, nor follow any users. However, there is a new policy, unbeknownst to many, that Twitter has now implemented within their application.
Twitter Drops the Requirement to Login To View Tweets
There was obvious hatred when it came to having to log in to view tweets. Therefore, Twitter had to take action in regard to what the community wanted. Therefore, this requirement was dropped not long after it was brought back. “Days after requiring users to log in to view tweets, Twitter has silently removed these restrictions. This means you can open Twitter links in a browser without an account,” according to TechCrunch.
As this was heavily requested, a huge negative outburst resulted from it this impromptu change. Therefore, it seems that Twitter may not be re-introducing this requirement to log in. That is, unless they want the same reaction, or possibly worse. It is known that this was done in the past already, and the same result had occurred. Therefore, why exactly do they continue to require users to log in to view tweets?
Why Did Twitter Re-Introduce This?
There was one main reason why Twitter continues to bring this feature back. Elon Musk mentions it was a last-minute emergency procedure that was and may certainly continue to be needed in the near future. “We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!” Musk explained when the controversial requirement was first put in place. Back then, he classified it as a temporary, emergency measure, but didn’t say how long it will take before Twitter switches back to normal, according to Slash Gear. Therefore, since there was so much data and it was uncontrollable at certain points, this was to counter that. However, the community certainly was not in favor of it.
Furthermore, there are also several companies who were affiliated with Twitter, and therefore there is a huge load of data that is being used by them as well. “Musk further reasoned that some organizations were engaged in extremely aggressive data scraping and it was affecting the overall user experience,” according to Slash Gear. Therefore, Elon Musk has several reasons to back up why exactly he decided to make this change.
The Future of Twitter and These Impromptu Changes
It is without a doubt that Elon Musk may continue to implement this change every so often within the platform. As much as it may anger users, it may just be something that cannot be avoided, otherwise, that could greatly affect the platform itself. However, instead of this change being silent, it should be made known to the entire community. That way, it is something that everyone expects and does not come impromptu like it has done in the past.
Written by David Loran Jr
Sources:
TechCrunch: Twitter silently removes login requirement for viewing tweets
ComicBook: Twitter Users Annoyed by Forced Login Change
SlashGear: Twitter Finally Drops One Of Its Most Annoying Features
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Stock Catalog’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Steve Jurvetson’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
