“Rate Limit Exceeded”

And how lack of trust rendered the explanations from Twitter moot.

And here I thought my article this weekend would be about ESPN.

Don’t worry, that one is coming too.

Being someone who is a fan of sports that span the globe, my Twitter thread rarely sleeps. As some accounts I follow in the US are tailing off, others in the UK, Europe in general and others are waking up getting their information out to followers. As a result, I check my timeline in the morning for things I missed. This is strictly sports though, as I do not follow any news on the app and in fact anyone related to politics or political punditry I either have blocked or muted. Don’t worry, this isn’t a political story, I do sports!

“Rate Limit Exceeded”

So, with sports, yesterday there was the Formula 1 Sprint qualifying and Sprint race. Generally during races if something big happens I like to look and see what folks are saying, especially if Ferrari pulls a Ferrari and makes a tactical error causing Charles Leclerc to let out a primal yelp in frustration. However, for this Sprint, my thread had this very odd, ambiguous messaging at the top, “Rate Limit Exceeded”. Huh? What’s going on? With all the track limits exceeded so far over the Formula 1 weekend to that point I was hearing the word more often than usual, but now I am seeing it  on my Twitter thread and can’t renew tweets? What gives?

So there we all were, 2 hours and change with no explanation, Twitter was down again. Since Elon Musk took over the company, technical glitches and self owns have been more or less the norm on the platform. I won’t go over all of them but anything from Twitter Blue controversies, random site crashes due to 75% of staff being laid off, “cam girls” following users and sliding into DM’s with massive uptick, a botched Presidential launch via Twitter spaces  (this is not a political article)...Twitter is not unfamiliar with things going topsy turvy as of late. But hey, it usually comes around eventually, right?

Troll in the Dungeon

Well, since yesterday morning the site has been pretty painful to try and navigate, and while we were eventually given an albeit less than satisfactory explanation as to why, it was just another way in which the site has become more and more frustrating for those who use it for information, and genuinely for their jobs. When the communications team at Twitter was asked for comment according to the New York Times, the communications team at Twitter simply sent a poop emoji in response.

Now, while data scraping is real, and trying to combat it is a problem for anyone who has a sizable platform, speaking on the threat rings hollow when the platform itself is sending poop emojis to journalists asking for legitimate explanation. It also doesn’t help that the company is now owned by an internet troll. He is an incredibly rich internet troll, but a troll nonetheless. 

When your company is owned by a troll, the theories as to why your site is limiting access when you are a “free speech absolutist” will naturally run rampant. Some of the more surface level speculation was simply that Mr. Musk and Twitter were trying to force everyone to buy Twitter Blue. The way to make that happen with journalists and those who use the platform heavily for work is obvious, as it is a tool they use to spread their information to the masses. This is ESPECIALLY true in sports media. A deeper, more devious thought process was that Mr. Musk and Twitter were hoping to prey on the social media addictions of their users that would have many of them buckling and paying for a site they once used for free. The company has to be profitable, so let’s manipulate our users into paying for our own shortcomings. 

Aside:

I have plenty I’d love to delve into with Mr. Musk and his own activities on the site that have sewn this mistrust, but they are well documented. At this point we know who he is and we know who he loves to play footsie with for everyone to see with the accounts he interacts with. And on the off chance one of his sycophants finds this article and posts it to be distributed amongst the terrible masses, I have decided to keep this section brief.

It does beg the question though. Why is it that when you disagree with Mr. Musk, it always seems like not only does his hoard of followers come after you, but the racists, misogynists and bigots all fall in line to pile on too. I guess they’re all happy Elon let them back on the site and wish to show their gratitude. 

Reaction

So far, the reaction to “Rate Limit Exceeded” has been swift. News organizations the world over are covering, or trying to cover the story. Traffic on the platform is down, and I know this to be true because posts that would usually garner more reaction seem pretty muted in comparison and people are posting less frequently. The term itself was trending on the platform, not that you could see it though because well, ya know. Posts from people I follow were a mixture of talking about “Rate Limit Exceeded” and what was an incredibly exciting day for many sports fans! Shoutout JMU football recruiting and the extensive coverage by the Sickos Committee on the Italian Bowl in Toledo, Ohio. Even the most committed sports accounts were mostly commenting on the Twitter platform yet again falling flat on its face. 

Perhaps the most telling though, was how users were now telling followers where to find them on other platforms, something Elon has never been a fan of. BlueSky was trending on Twitter yesterday and if it weren’t for the invite only feature of the service at the moment, BlueSky surely would have crashed with folks disillusioned with Twitter looking elsewhere for something comparable. I know I am someone who is deep into college football but it is pretty amazing how many college football journalists have accounts on BlueSky now as well. But it’s not just people going to the direct rival app, folks were being shown all sorts of other platforms these people and others could be found. Those Linktree shares were quite busy.

What remains to be seen is how advertisers will handle this latest snafu. While Twitter says the limits are temporary, that doesn’t mean that millions in advertising budget can’t be wasted in a short period of time when a company's ads can’t reach the target audience. A friend of mine told me his company has already significantly pulled back their ad spending on Twitter even before this, so who knows what others could be thinking as well. This is what could make or break the site. Elon has built up plenty of trust over the years with his other companies amongst the biggest movers and shakers, but even they have a limit on how much BS they can handle. 

So, what now?

As I write this, the Austrian Grand Prix has yet to begin, and by the time I will have posted this, it will have concluded. Usually I would be on Twitter, interacting, looking for information, and just enjoying the spectacle while watching coverage on TV. I haven’t even opened my Twitter app today. Which, thanks Elon? Helping, even if temporarily and by accident, shake many people’s impulse to automatically check social media. But, I am not sure I like the long term potential consequences here.

Twitter truly is unique, especially in the sports world, when it comes to sharing information and encouraging dialogue amongst fans, journalists, and players alike. Unlike the cesspool that is college football message boards, fans from different teams will come and engage in banter, for better or worse. An account I run for college softball and touring different stadiums works uniquely for Twitter because of the followers it reaches. It is a platform that has done what I genuinely think is more good than bad. It became a lot more tolerable once I realized you could block/mute words and phrases as well.

So, I say all of that to say, I do not want Twitter to fail. I don’t think anyone in the sports media landscape wants Twitter to fail. It truly has become the place to go for sports breaking news, engagement, and joy. But, I also can’t pretend like what happened yesterday wasn’t predictable, and that as more stuff like this happens the platform will become more and more frustrating to deal with. Until then, I’ll be waiting for the restrictions to be lifted, and I guess we’ll come together again whenever the next inevitable Twitter face plant happens.