Twitter to restrict number of direct messages sent from unverified accounts

Twitter announced Friday that it will limit the number of direct messages a user can send in an attempt to reduce spam.

The company’s support page said that unverified accounts will have a limit on the number of direct messages they can send per day, but did not specify what that limit is.

The move has come under criticism for punishing users that do not pay for Twitter Blue, the site’s premium subscription service. Blue subscribers would not have a limit on direct messages.

The anti-spam changes have worked, according to Twitter. After a policy change last week allowing users to not accept messages from people they do not follow, spam was reduced by 70 percent, the company claimed.

The policy change comes weeks after Twitter announced that non-paying users would have the number of posts they can see per day limited. That change was sparked by technological limitations, Twitter owner Elon Musk said.

Twitter Blue has been an increasing focus of Musk since he purchased the platform last year. Twitter has lost about half of its advertising revenue since Musk purchased the site, he said, straining company finances. 

The company laid off a majority of its staff and has reportedly stopped paying rent at its office spaces. Many advertisers left Twitter after Musk took over the platform and removed the bans of many of the content creators who were nixed from the platform in previous years.