Twitter Users Have Trouble Blocking Accounts — Elon Musk Responds

Twitter users who had problems blocking accounts on the microblogging site can now do so without facing any interruption. 

What Happened: Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted on Monday that the microblogging site "experienced slight degradation of service" caused by "an old 3rd party tool." He added that the issue "should be fixed now."

Twitter experienced slight degradation of service today from an old 3rd party tool used to block accounts that had no rate limit (sigh). Should be fixed now.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022

Musk also acknowledged that he became aware of the issue via a tweet. 

That’s literally how I found out!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022

Musk also pointed out that the Twitter system needs immediate alerts for "any sudden spike in database writes of any kind." 

See Also: Elon Musk Seems To Have Retained This Twitter' Rain' Feature Even After Sacking 50% Of Workforce

Why It's Important: Rate limiting is a method for social media platforms like Twitter to limit messages to a specific maximum frequency. The technique is said to enable these platforms to detect bots and spammers. 

In May, long before Musk took over Twitter, he had said that 20% of the accounts on the microblogging site were fake. He also added that defeating spam bots will be a priority if the bidding was successful. 

Since Musk took over Twitter, the microblogging site has introduced various features to do the same. However, his battle against spammers, bots, and fake accounts is surrounded by a continuous spree of misinformation and impersonations.  

Read Next: Elon Musk Says 'Hate Speech Impressions' Down On Twitter — But Not Everyone Is Buying It