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Twitter has been collapsing in slow motion since Elon Musk<\/strong> was forced (after he tried to renege on the $44 billion deal<\/a>) to buy the social media platform last October, and this weekend, it’s seemingly on the verge of kaput.\u00a0<\/p>\n At first, the platform\u2019s disintegration had ideological causes \u2014 for example, Musk\u2019s decree that Twitter would start treating \u201ccisgender\u201d as a slur<\/a>. And sometimes, the cause was basic operational incompetence, like vowing to make Twitter<\/a> \u201cthe world\u2019s most accurate real-time information source\u201d and then requiring payment for verification – something most credible reporters cannot and\/or will not do.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the owner of Twitter tells you to [checking notes] \u201cStep away from the phone to see your friends & family,\u201d you know something is off-kilter.<\/p>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On Friday, users noticed that Twitter pages were no longer accessible to web users who were not logged in<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not immediately clear whether the change was an intentional policy update or a glitch, both of which have been common at Twitter since Musk took over the platform,\u201d wrote Clare Duffy at CNN.com, adding, \u201cTwitter did not respond to a request for comment.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s because Twitter\u2019s communications department staff were among the first Musk fired<\/a> after taking over; as of March, press attempts to reach the company were answered with a poop emoji<\/a>.<\/p>\n It fell to Musk to explain what was going on, and Saturday, he tweeted<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cTo address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we\u2019ve applied the following temporary limits:<\/p>\n \u201c- Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts\/day<\/p>\n \u201c- Unverified accounts to 600 posts\/day<\/p>\n \u201c- New unverified accounts to 300\/day\u201d<\/p>\n Musk latest clarified<\/a> that those numbers had been raised to 10,000, 1000, and 500 for each tier of users.<\/p>\n The beleaguered social media platform has tried to win back advertisers by hiring NBC’s Linda Yaccarino<\/strong> as Twitter’s Chief Executive Officer but it’s too early to assess if she’s going to be successful.\u00a0<\/p>\n The newly installed CEO admitted that some \u201cbig brands\u201d were no longer using the platform, according to audio of a meeting obtained by The New York Times,<\/em> and her team would have to engage in \u201chand-to-hand combat\u201d<\/a> to persuade them to return.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\nTwitter content<\/h4>\n