Twitter to limit TweetDeck access to ‘verified’ accounts starting August
ALBAWABA – Twitter has effectively begun limiting access to TweetDeck, a popular Twitter platform that allows users to monitor several accounts at once, to one account, ahead of the new policy announced Monday, which limits the platform to “verified” user accounts only.
Despite the official announcement, on July 4, saying the decision will come into force beginning of August, measures are being implemented in preparation for the new policy.
Reporters and editors within AlBawaba, who use TweetDeck, have confirmed being logged out of the platform.
Only one of the accounts they each manage has remained logged in on the platform.
This could be part of Twitter’s effort to limit data scrapping by limiting the number of tweets both verified and unverified accounts can view per day, a senior editor at AlBawaba explained.
Twitter's verified users are mostly those who have paid to receive a blue check mark.
Though billionaire Elon Musk has gifted the check mark to some users and others have it as a legacy from the previous regime, users who want to be verified today will have to pay.
The social media platform, bought by Musk last year, has been scrapping for ways to make a profit, cutting staff and ramping up paid subscriptions.
TweetDeck, which was launched more than a decade ago, shows messages in columns and has search and posting functions that operate differently to the website or the app.
The firm said in a support message on Monday that it was launching a new version of TweetDeck with various new functions, but it will be limited to verified accounts only.
"In 30 days, users must be Verified to access TweetDeck," the message said.
A series of changes to the way Twitter is run left many TweetDeck users unable to see posts on the weekend.
Twitter bought London-based TweetDeck in 2011, with technology media putting the price tag at $40 million at the time.
