Twitter users are currently experiencing a temporary restriction. This was first noticed on Saturday afternoon, when Twitter feeds refused to load and ‘rate limit exceeded’ message popped up instead.

Twitter said it introduced ‘rate limit exceeded’ to control the use of Twitter Application Programming Interface (API). “In order to control the use of the Twitter API, Twitter sets a limit on how many times it can be used in an hour,” it said.

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According to the micro-blog, Twitter API “is a set of programmatic endpoints that can be used to understand or build the conversation on Twitter”.

‘Rate limit exceeded’ puts a limit to the number of times the platform can be accessed by a user. The number of tweets or new accounts to interact with within a set timeframe is also limited.

They are now taking to Downdetector to report the problems. As of 5:48 pm (WAT), when FIJ refreshed the website, the problem chart showed that 7,554 reports had been made.

Sharing an update on the restriction, Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, said the move was necessary to curb extreme levels of data scrapping and system manipulation.

“To curb extreme levels of data scrapping and system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits: Verified accounts are limited to reading 6,000 posts/day, unverified accounts to 600 posts/day, new unverified accounts to 300/day,” Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.

One tweep posted on Downdetector, “Wait, does it let anyone scroll further up on Twitter until it says rate limit exceeded? Coz I can’t see new tweets, just old ones. Every page I go on just says rate limit exceeded. That the same for everyone.”

Another user also wrote, “Please tell me Twitter actually died.”

However, Twitter said the rate limit only applies to its app and not website.