Twitter allows guests to read tweets again, but "something went wrong" spoils the fun
Last week, Twitter implemented changes on the social messaging site that prevented anonymous users, those without an account, from reading tweets, searching the site or browsing profiles. The restriction has been lifted silently, but not completely.
Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that the measures were temporary to block data scraping and system manipulation. Just a few days later, Twitter began to introduce read caps for registered users, even those who paid the company for verification.
Later on, Twitter informed its business partners that this was done to combat spam and bots that were plaguing the site.
The changes that Twitter implemented had side effects. Previews of tweets were no longer posted on third-party sites and services, and many users who found links to Twitter on sites or in chats discovered that opening these would not reveal the content.
Earlier today, Twitter appears to have lifted some of the restrictions. Links to individual tweets on the site open again, even for anonymous users without account. Similarly, previews of links appear again on sites that support these.
Anonymous users may notice, however, that they can't access all of the content on the site yet. Attempts to open the profile of a Twitter user returns a "something went wrong. Try reloading" error instead of the list of tweets.
While anonymous users may access individual linked tweets right now on Twitter, they can't access profiles, the Twitter homepage or read replies.
The message shows up on Twitter without any replies. Attempts to open a trending topic or to access the profile are either met with the "something went wrong" error message or a prompt to sign-in or sign-up to access the content.
The limitations impact third-party tools such as Nitter, which still can't be used to access Twitter content in privacy. This means, that it is still not possible to bypass the Twitter login prompts to access content on the site without account.
The silent change has improved the situation slightly, as individual tweets will show up again on third-party sites and may be viewed by anyone who follows a link that points to Twitter.
Hiding replies on the site or options to browse topics reduces the usefulness of the site significantly, on the other hand.
Meta is launching Threads today, which is a direct Twitter competitor. Threads, just like Twitter, is data hungry, which can be verified when looking at the data privacy section of the app on the Apple App Store.
The limitations at Twitter could give Threads a boost, as users are looking for alternatives to the, sometimes, erratic changes on Twitter.
So looking at individual tweets without an account works for me.
I was reading an article that had a linked tweet which I was able to click on and view in twitter.
I was researching something and did a Google search, and a tweet was returned as part of the result.
I was able to see this tweet too without an account.
I then did a Google search for a twitter user and limited the scope to twitter, i.e., site:twitter.com, and I was able to find their tweets.
This works using Bing and Yahoo too.
How come these search engines can scrape Twitter?
I thought the whole point of the recently implemented horrible changes to Twitter was to stop scraping.
Current situation for me is that individual tweets load and are readable, but no threads/answers to the tweet in question. And the “trends” list on the right side is blank and not functioning.
The latest twist in this saga has Twitter threatening to sue Meta for “misappropriated trade secrets”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/06/twitter-meta-lawsuit-threads-app-musk-zuckerberg
Wonders will never cease :D
I’d LOVE to see Meta sued into bankruptcy. I can’t stand that little tw*t, $uckerberg. They should have been broken up a long time ago for antitrust violations.
– Anonymous users may access individual linked tweets right now on Twitter.
– Third-party tools such as Nitter still can’t be used to access Twitter content in privacy.
Indeed, Nitter still inoperative.
What is Twitter’s road-map? To allow anonymous users to access tweets but not via third-party tools?
Is this the plan or are we only facing a partial/badly carried out fix?
Concerning Meta’s Threads, should it be available here in Europe, now or in the future, I wouldn’t use it for two reasons :
– It’s a Meta product and I dislike Meta products because I dislike Meta’s policy as I dislike and avoid all of GAFAM.
– Should I make an exception for Meta’s ‘Threads’ that reading its content would require an account as I understand it. If I’m not an active member, that is if I don’t write on a social site, I don’t see why I’d need an account to simply read a social site’s account.
Still waiting for Twitter content to be available to anonymous users via a 3rd-party tools such as Nitter (there are others I presume). Should Twitter never return to the open space it’s been in the past that I’d abandon it definitely. Right now I remain on a wait and see approach.
Nitter, a “free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy and performance.” is back on tracks :)
Be sure to choose an instance checked as “Updated” at [https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances]
Runs flawlessly again. I don’t know how they did it, but they did it!
Hey Tom, what does GAFAM stand for?
Well, I will not give up on Twitter yet, glad they reversed the decision to lock out non logged in users of the site, as the open platform is one of Twitters strong points. I hope the CEO, Musk and their team will find a more stable way of tackling similar issue in the future, should that happen. And the alternatives to Twitter are simply a no go. Especially anything Facebook/Meta owned. I said to myself back in 2009 that I will never create an account on facebook, I still haven’t done it and that’s how it will stay. I access Twitter via the site directly and not via nitter, except rare occasions. But now its a long time since I used nitter, using Twitter direclty is often easier. Take care and I hope you have a nice summer!
> what does GAFAM stand for?
Google (Alphabet Inc.), Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, Microsoft
It is an international name for a platformer that monopolizes the market.
My commitment to my data privacy is extreme and unwavering. Collection of browsing habits is a human rights violation. Congress should have put a stop to it decades ago when MS started requiring registration of laptops just like the the despotic Romanian regime of the ’80s required registration of typewriters. I would never consider joining a Meta platform and Twitter gathers and shares too much data for my tastes.
I have browsed Twitter without an account for news for the past 2-3 years.
Musk is currently breaching his contract with every paid Twitter account. When they agreed to pay, their agreed upon reach was to the public at large, even to those who were not signed up.
I don’t buy his bot excuse. Surely he’s heard of Recaptcha.
I think the NBC/WEF hag he recently put in charge is a Trojan horse sent to destroy Twitter because of Musk’s commitment to free speech.
He’s highly intelligent but in the case of Yaccarino, his ginormous ego has made him stupid and easily fooled.
I see. Very good. Thanks, owl!
GAFAM: common name (abbreviation)
It is also expressed as “GAFMA”.
@ Tom Hawack,
Try accessing Twitter without using third party apps like Nitter. You don’t have to worry about privacy because you’ll probably be blocking cookies that Twitter uses to track you. In any event, you can clear practically all tracking elements by using Firefox’s “Forget about this site” option on the context menu. That deletes everything associated with, in this particular case, Twitter.
Using that FF option doesn’t prevent you from accessing the same sites again afterwards.
@TelV, indeed. I have that in mind should front-ends such as Nitter appear to be definitely blocked.
Why do I prefer accessing Twitter content via Nitter?
Mainly because I block Twitter domains at the OS level and if I do it’s to avoid these domains from being accessed as 3rd-party connections when browsing. I could use uBO to handle that. Nitter itself accesses Twitter content independently, proxy-like.
If I no longer block Twitter domains at the OS level I should of course be able now to access tweets on Twitter, directly. Irrationally though it bothers me : I don’t like social sites, tweets have always been the only exception. I’d have to set uBO to accept required Twitter connections on Twitter itself and fine-tune twitter 3d-party connections. Feasible of course.
Twiitter, along with Google and Facebook are among the most accessed via 3rd-party connections when visiting practically all sites. These are all blocked at the OS level and even though I’ve fine-tuned uBO I still happen to see a few connections in my logs.
As i said, if Nitter becomes obsolete, I’ll think about it. I don’t use Twitter, no account of course. Bothers me to make an exception for this domain just to check a few tweets, occasionally, therefor I might as well totally ban Twitter if Nitter disappears. Wait and see.
OK, so I disabled Twitter redirects to Nitter, disabled blocking Twitter at the OS level, opened a Twitter page [https://twitter.com/ghacks] and the result is problematic. As mentioned in this very article. but worse : spinning wheel on a center empty frame, spinning wheel on a right empty frame. Had a look at uBO, allowed what could block except connections to Google servers. Why does twitter connect to google servers? No idea.
I’m fed up with Twitter’s prudery. I’m about to remove redirects to Nitter, block what wasn’t of Twitter and avoid the whole goddamned site. Not Nitter’s fault need to say but I’ve had enough of Twitter’s chaotic management. Let them go yo hell. Finished, over.
@ Tom Hawack,
You’re seeing the spinning circle on Twitter because the Ghacks tweet has been taken down. I assume Martin only created it for illustrative purposes. Once it was no longer appropriate Martin removed it (I stand to correction on that score).
This one works: https://twitter.com/HavaSosyalMedya/status/1676205128368390145
It concerns a guy who arrived at the gate too late to catch his flight and tried to prevent the flight from leaving.
@TelV, the spinning wheel is not related to Ghacks’ twiiter page, had the same issue on other Twitter pages.
It’s only that Twitter isn’t able to display the image in the center and on the right column. No great deal.
Anyway I’ve removed Twitter redirects to Nitter as I wrote above yesterday. I’ll maybe have a look later to what is required to have Twitter display correctly, not sure though given I really very seldom accessed Twitter content at the time of Nitter. Maybe because Twitter as all social websites is heavy, heavy in code, heavy in requirements. I wonder how heavy a simple tweet’s page is compared to clean, lite Nitter rendering is (was).
Thanks for your concern :)
@TelV, I tried Twitter objectively, fixed my issues. it appears that Twitter does not ask to sign-in as long as the anonymous user requests only a given tweet, which is why your tweet with video appeared, which is why [https://twitter.com/ghacks] did not, Anything else than a tweet brings up Twitter’s Sign-in requirement. No search, nothing. I won’t open an account just for that.
For me, that’s definitely a no. I shall not be using Twitter.
> Meta is launching Threads today, which is a direct Twitter competitor. Threads, just like Twitter, is data hungry,
It’s like a “Mafia struggle for supremacy”.