Why did Twitter recently impose a rate limit for all users? The official reason is to combat web scrapers and bots, but others have speculated it's related to issues managing cloud resources. 

#tech #webdevelopment #thecodereport 

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🔗 Resources

Elon's Rate Limit Tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1675187969420828672
Twitter code open sourced https://youtu.be/GXN34w8kju4
Reddit API pricing https://youtu.be/Ch6zNEq9fwM
Beyond Fireship Web Scraping https://youtu.be/qo_fUjb02ns

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🔖 Topics Covered

- How does rate limiting work?
- Twitter self-inflicted DDoS attack
- Is Twitter dying?
- Twitter issues with Google Cloud Platform
- Elon Musk vs Zuckerberg fight
- JavaScript bugs in production
2024-02-04T05:03:26.905Z
nova-2
2-general-nova
2024-01-09.29447
30089e05-99d1-4376-b32e-c263170674af
35642c5b-8851-44a0-979d-9fda46e6c61f
89f5911ace355c4d80f04a3b940f791bd47d838f96f4fefaeb2b5aa93a77a2fe
67875a7f-c9c4-48a0-aa55-5bdb8a91c34a
deprecated
It is July 3, 2023, and you're watching the Code Report.
In his latest 7 d chess move, Elon surprised Twitter users with some exciting new features.
First, he decreed a rate limit for everyone on the platform.
Non blue checks get to look at 600 tweets per day, while paying members get to look at up to 6,000 tweets.
That may sound harsh, but this is just some tough love from the Twitter king to help us beat off our social media addictions.
If you're having withdrawals, though, you can always count on a programmer with an anime profile image to save the day, like this person who developed a Chrome plugin that uses the old Twitter theme and bypasses the rate limit.
The second new feature is that Twitter shut off all public access to the website, so currently, you must be signed in to look at tweets.
In other words, Twitter is almost a full blown paywall site now.
Officially, these new features were deployed on a Friday in a panic because too many bots and web scrapers were accessing tweets with automated tools.
Web scraping is an absolutely despicable practice, and if you wanna learn how to do it at an industrial scale, check out this video on my second channel.
To add insult to injury, Twitter went down for a while yesterday, and it appears some bad JavaScript code made it into production that would call the API in an infinite loop from the client side, resulting in a self inflicted DDoS attack.
The Thing is, though, real men test in production.
I was able to obtain exclusive access to this garbage code, and what we have is a recursive async function that will catch and fetch forever.
But Twitter's been around for nearly 20 years at this point, so why is web scraping all of a sudden a big problem?
Well, a couple months ago, Twitter shut down access to its free API and made way too expensive for any of us peasant level developers to access.
This move also inspired the Reddit CEO to strap on a set of balls and take his API pricing to the moon to kill off 3rd party apps.
Despite a massive failed protest, the pricing went into effect yesterday, and third party apps like Apollo are officially dead.
Let's take a moment of silence for those we've lost.
The thing about this whole Twitter fiasco is that I find it somewhat hard to that web scraping is the primary reason they would implement such drastic changes, especially because this would reduce advertising impressions, which is though by far its biggest source of revenue.
If we do a little more research, we'll find that Twitter had been refusing to pay its Google Cloud bill, at least until recently.
Sundar had to hit up Elon via SpaceX, its other company that launches rockets into fake space, which also does business with GCP.
It's not the only bill that Twitter hasn't paid and was recently evicted from its Boulder, Colorado offices over unpaid rent.
The Google Cloud contract is a way bigger deal, though, at 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars per year and, coincidentally, expired on June 30th.
It's pure speculation whether these as new features are related to the Google Cloud contract.
But like I've said many times before, once you get locked into a cloud platform, they have you by the balls.
If You stop paying the bill, you first get bumped down to a rate limited tier, and then eventually the lights go out.
That could explain why Titter implemented a rate limit because they're likely right in the middle of migrating their infrastructure to a as very high, which are still pretty hard to come by.
Another theory going around is that Elon is actually fighting a battle against agencies like the CIA and NSA, who are once behind all the scraping and trying to use Twitter to create a death star of censorship.
I don't know if that's just Elon fanboy fiction, but I'm still putting my money on him in his upcoming death match against Zuck in the Roman Colosseum.
He's got the body of a mid century refrigerator, and I just don't see any way 5 foot 8 Zuck will be able to overcome the size differential.
But let me know whose corner urine in the comments.
No matter the outcome though, the important thing is that we enjoy our bread and circuses.
This has been the Code Report.
Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.

Speaker 0: It is July 3, 2023, and you're watching the Code Report. In his latest 7 d chess move, Elon surprised Twitter users with some exciting new features. First, he decreed a rate limit for everyone on the platform. Non blue checks get to look at 600 tweets per day, while paying members get to look at up to 6,000 tweets. That may sound harsh, but this is just some tough love from the Twitter king to help us beat off our social media addictions.

If you're having withdrawals, though, you can always count on a programmer with an anime profile image to save the day, like this person who developed a Chrome plugin that uses the old Twitter theme and bypasses the rate limit. The second new feature is that Twitter shut off all public access to the website, so currently, you must be signed in to look at tweets. In other words, Twitter is almost a full blown paywall site now. Officially, these new features were deployed on a Friday in a panic because too many bots and web scrapers were accessing tweets with automated tools. Web scraping is an absolutely despicable practice, and if you wanna learn how to do it at an industrial scale, check out this video on my second channel.

To add insult to injury, Twitter went down for a while yesterday, and it appears some bad JavaScript code made it into production that would call the API in an infinite loop from the client side, resulting in a self inflicted DDoS attack. The Thing is, though, real men test in production. I was able to obtain exclusive access to this garbage code, and what we have is a recursive async function that will catch and fetch forever. But Twitter's been around for nearly 20 years at this point, so why is web scraping all of a sudden a big problem? Well, a couple months ago, Twitter shut down access to its free API and made way too expensive for any of us peasant level developers to access.

This move also inspired the Reddit CEO to strap on a set of balls and take his API pricing to the moon to kill off 3rd party apps. Despite a massive failed protest, the pricing went into effect yesterday, and third party apps like Apollo are officially dead. Let's take a moment of silence for those we've lost. The thing about this whole Twitter fiasco is that I find it somewhat hard to that web scraping is the primary reason they would implement such drastic changes, especially because this would reduce advertising impressions, which is though by far its biggest source of revenue. If we do a little more research, we'll find that Twitter had been refusing to pay its Google Cloud bill, at least until recently.

Sundar had to hit up Elon via SpaceX, its other company that launches rockets into fake space, which also does business with GCP. It's not the only bill that Twitter hasn't paid and was recently evicted from its Boulder, Colorado offices over unpaid rent. The Google Cloud contract is a way bigger deal, though, at 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars per year and, coincidentally, expired on June 30th. It's pure speculation whether these as new features are related to the Google Cloud contract. But like I've said many times before, once you get locked into a cloud platform, they have you by the balls.

If You stop paying the bill, you first get bumped down to a rate limited tier, and then eventually the lights go out. That could explain why Titter implemented a rate limit because they're likely right in the middle of migrating their infrastructure to a as very high, which are still pretty hard to come by. Another theory going around is that Elon is actually fighting a battle against agencies like the CIA and NSA, who are once behind all the scraping and trying to use Twitter to create a death star of censorship. I don't know if that's just Elon fanboy fiction, but I'm still putting my money on him in his upcoming death match against Zuck in the Roman Colosseum. He's got the body of a mid century refrigerator, and I just don't see any way 5 foot 8 Zuck will be able to overcome the size differential.

But let me know whose corner urine in the comments. No matter the outcome though, the important thing is that we enjoy our bread and circuses. This has been the Code Report. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
It is July 3, 2023, and you're watching the Code Report. In his latest 7 d chess move, Elon surprised Twitter users with some exciting new features. First, he decreed a rate limit for everyone on the platform. Non blue checks get to look at 600 tweets per day, while paying members get to look at up to 6,000 tweets. That may sound harsh, but this is just some tough love from the Twitter king to help us beat off our social media addictions. If you're having withdrawals, though, you can always count on a programmer with an anime profile image to save the day, like this person who developed a Chrome plugin that uses the old Twitter theme and bypasses the rate limit. The second new feature is that Twitter shut off all public access to the website, so currently, you must be signed in to look at tweets. In other words, Twitter is almost a full blown paywall site now. Officially, these new features were deployed on a Friday in a panic because too many bots and web scrapers were accessing tweets with automated tools. Web scraping is an absolutely despicable practice, and if you wanna learn how to do it at an industrial scale, check out this video on my second channel. To add insult to injury, Twitter went down for a while yesterday, and it appears some bad JavaScript code made it into production that would call the API in an infinite loop from the client side, resulting in a self inflicted DDoS attack. The Thing is, though, real men test in production.
twitter
social media
internet
google
I was able to obtain exclusive access to this garbage code, and what we have is a recursive async function that will catch and fetch forever.
But Twitter's been around for nearly 20 years at this point, so why is web scraping all of a sudden a big problem? Well, a couple months ago, Twitter shut down access to its free API and made way too expensive for any of us peasant level developers to access.
twitter
social media
google
This move also inspired the Reddit CEO to strap on a set of balls and take his API pricing to the moon to kill off 3rd party apps.
Despite a massive failed protest, the pricing went into effect yesterday, and third party apps like Apollo are officially dead. Let's take a moment of silence for those we've lost. The thing about this whole Twitter fiasco is that I find it somewhat hard to that web scraping is the primary reason they would implement such drastic changes, especially because this would reduce advertising impressions, which is though by far its biggest source of revenue. If we do a little more research, we'll find that Twitter had been refusing to pay its Google Cloud bill, at least until recently. Sundar had to hit up Elon via SpaceX, its other company that launches rockets into fake space, which also does business with GCP. It's not the only bill that Twitter hasn't paid and was recently evicted from its Boulder, Colorado offices over unpaid rent. The Google Cloud contract is a way bigger deal, though, at 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars per year and, coincidentally, expired on June 30th. It's pure speculation whether these as new features are related to the Google Cloud contract. But like I've said many times before, once you get locked into a cloud platform, they have you by the balls. If You stop paying the bill, you first get bumped down to a rate limited tier, and then eventually the lights go out.
google
advertising
twitter
social media
marketing
That could explain why Titter implemented a rate limit because they're likely right in the middle of migrating their infrastructure to a as very high, which are still pretty hard to come by.
Another theory going around is that Elon is actually fighting a battle against agencies like the CIA and NSA, who are once behind all the scraping and trying to use Twitter to create a death star of censorship. I don't know if that's just Elon fanboy fiction, but I'm still putting my money on him in his upcoming death match against Zuck in the Roman Colosseum.
fascism
He's got the body of a mid century refrigerator, and I just don't see any way 5 foot 8 Zuck will be able to overcome the size differential.
But let me know whose corner urine in the comments. No matter the outcome though, the important thing is that we enjoy our bread and circuses. This has been the Code Report. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
tobacco
marijuana
It is July 3, 2023, and you're watching the Code Report. In his latest 7 d chess move, Elon surprised Twitter users with some exciting new features. First, he decreed a rate limit for everyone on the platform. Non blue checks get to look at 600 tweets per day, while paying members get to look at up to 6,000 tweets. That may sound harsh, but this is just some tough love from the Twitter king to help us beat off our social media addictions. If you're having withdrawals, though, you can always count on a programmer with an anime profile image to save the day, like this person who developed a Chrome plugin that uses the old Twitter theme and bypasses the rate limit. The second new feature is that Twitter shut off all public access to the website, so currently, you must be signed in to look at tweets. In other words, Twitter is almost a full blown paywall site now. Officially, these new features were deployed on a Friday in a panic because too many bots and web scrapers were accessing tweets with automated tools. Web scraping is an absolutely despicable practice, and if you wanna learn how to do it at an industrial scale, check out this video on my second channel. To add insult to injury, Twitter went down for a while yesterday, and it appears some bad JavaScript code made it into production that would call the API in an infinite loop from the client side, resulting in a self inflicted DDoS attack. The Thing is, though, real men test in production. I was able to obtain exclusive access to this garbage code, and what we have is a recursive async function that will catch and fetch forever. But Twitter's been around for nearly 20 years at this point, so why is web scraping all of a sudden a big problem? Well, a couple months ago, Twitter shut down access to its free API and made way too expensive for any of us peasant level developers to access. This move also inspired the Reddit CEO to strap on a set of balls and take his API pricing to the moon to kill off 3rd party apps. Despite a massive failed protest, the pricing went into effect yesterday, and third party apps like Apollo are officially dead. Let's take a moment of silence for those we've lost. The thing about this whole Twitter fiasco is that I find it somewhat hard to that web scraping is the primary reason they would implement such drastic changes, especially because this would reduce advertising impressions, which is though by far its biggest source of revenue. If we do a little more research, we'll find that Twitter had been refusing to pay its Google Cloud bill, at least until recently. Sundar had to hit up Elon via SpaceX, its other company that launches rockets into fake space, which also does business with GCP. It's not the only bill that Twitter hasn't paid and was recently evicted from its Boulder, Colorado offices over unpaid rent. The Google Cloud contract is a way bigger deal, though, at 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars per year and, coincidentally, expired on June 30th. It's pure speculation whether these as new features are related to the Google Cloud contract. But like I've said many times before, once you get locked into a cloud platform, they have you by the balls. If You stop paying the bill, you first get bumped down to a rate limited tier, and then eventually the lights go out. That could explain why Titter implemented a rate limit because they're likely right in the middle of migrating their infrastructure to a as very high, which are still pretty hard to come by. Another theory going around is that Elon is actually fighting a battle against agencies like the CIA and NSA, who are once behind all the scraping and trying to use Twitter to create a death star of censorship. I don't know if that's just Elon fanboy fiction, but I'm still putting my money on him in his upcoming death match against Zuck in the Roman Colosseum. He's got the body of a mid century refrigerator, and I just don't see any way 5 foot 8 Zuck will be able to overcome the size differential. But let me know whose corner urine in the comments. No matter the outcome though, the important thing is that we enjoy our bread and circuses. This has been the Code Report. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
It
it
is
is
July
july
3,
3
2023,
2023
and
and
you're
you're
watching
watching
the
the
Code
code
Report.
report
In
in
his
his
latest
latest
7
7
d
d
chess
chess
move,
move
Elon
elon
surprised
surprised
Twitter
twitter
users
users
with
with
some
some
exciting
exciting
new
new
features.
features
First,
first
he
he
decreed
decreed
a
a
rate
rate
limit
limit
for
for
everyone
everyone
on
on
the
the
platform.
platform
Non
non
blue
blue
checks
checks
get
get
to
to
look
look
at
at
600
600
tweets
tweets
per
per
day,
day
while
while
paying
paying
members
members
get
get
to
to
look
look
at
at
up
up
to
to
6,000
6,000
tweets.
tweets
That
that
may
may
sound
sound
harsh,
harsh
but
but
this
this
is
is
just
just
some
some
tough
tough
love
love
from
from
the
the
Twitter
twitter
king
king
to
to
help
help
us
us
beat
beat
off
off
our
our
social
social
media
media
addictions.
addictions
If
if
you're
you're
having
having
withdrawals,
withdrawals
though,
though
you
you
can
can
always
always
count
count
on
on
a
a
programmer
programmer
with
with
an
an
anime
anime
profile
profile
image
image
to
to
save
save
the
the
day,
day
like
like
this
this
person
person
who
who
developed
developed
a
a
Chrome
chrome
plugin
plugin
that
that
uses
uses
the
the
old
old
Twitter
twitter
theme
theme
and
and
bypasses
bypasses
the
the
rate
rate
limit.
limit
The
the
second
second
new
new
feature
feature
is
is
that
that
Twitter
twitter
shut
shut
off
off
all
all
public
public
access
access
to
to
the
the
website,
website
so
so
currently,
currently
you
you
must
must
be
be
signed
signed
in
in
to
to
look
look
at
at
tweets.
tweets
In
in
other
other
words,
words
Twitter
twitter
is
is
almost
almost
a
a
full
full
blown
blown
paywall
paywall
site
site
now.
now
Officially,
officially
these
these
new
new
features
features
were
were
deployed
deployed
on
on
a
a
Friday
friday
in
in
a
a
panic
panic
because
because
too
too
many
many
bots
bots
and
and
web
web
scrapers
scrapers
were
were
accessing
accessing
tweets
tweets
with
with
automated
automated
tools.
tools
Web
web
scraping
scraping
is
is
an
an
absolutely
absolutely
despicable
despicable
practice,
practice
and
and
if
if
you
you
wanna
wanna
learn
learn
how
how
to
to
do
do
it
it
at
at
an
an
industrial
industrial
scale,
scale
check
check
out
out
this
this
video
video
on
on
my
my
second
second
channel.
channel
To
to
add
add
insult
insult
to
to
injury,
injury
Twitter
twitter
went
went
down
down
for
for
a
a
while
while
yesterday,
yesterday
and
and
it
it
appears
appears
some
some
bad
bad
JavaScript
javascript
code
code
made
made
it
it
into
into
production
production
that
that
would
would
call
call
the
the
API
api
in
in
an
an
infinite
infinite
loop
loop
from
from
the
the
client
client
side,
side
resulting
resulting
in
in
a
a
self
self
inflicted
inflicted
DDoS
ddos
attack.
attack
The
the
Thing
thing
is,
is
though,
though
real
real
men
men
test
test
in
in
production.
production
I
i
was
was
able
able
to
to
obtain
obtain
exclusive
exclusive
access
access
to
to
this
this
garbage
garbage
code,
code
and
and
what
what
we
we
have
have
is
is
a
a
recursive
recursive
async
async
function
function
that
that
will
will
catch
catch
and
and
fetch
fetch
forever.
forever
But
but
Twitter's
twitter's
been
been
around
around
for
for
nearly
nearly
20
20
years
years
at
at
this
this
point,
point
so
so
why
why
is
is
web
web
scraping
scraping
all
all
of
of
a
a
sudden
sudden
a
a
big
big
problem?
problem
Well,
well
a
a
couple
couple
months
months
ago,
ago
Twitter
twitter
shut
shut
down
down
access
access
to
to
its
its
free
free
API
api
and
and
made
made
way
way
too
too
expensive
expensive
for
for
any
any
of
of
us
us
peasant
peasant
level
level
developers
developers
to
to
access.
access
This
this
move
move
also
also
inspired
inspired
the
the
Reddit
reddit
CEO
ceo
to
to
strap
strap
on
on
a
a
set
set
of
of
balls
balls
and
and
take
take
his
his
API
api
pricing
pricing
to
to
the
the
moon
moon
to
to
kill
kill
off
off
3rd
3rd
party
party
apps.
apps
Despite
despite
a
a
massive
massive
failed
failed
protest,
protest
the
the
pricing
pricing
went
went
into
into
effect
effect
yesterday,
yesterday
and
and
third
third
party
party
apps
apps
like
like
Apollo
apollo
are
are
officially
officially
dead.
dead
Let's
let's
take
take
a
a
moment
moment
of
of
silence
silence
for
for
those
those
we've
we've
lost.
lost
The
the
thing
thing
about
about
this
this
whole
whole
Twitter
twitter
fiasco
fiasco
is
is
that
that
I
i
find
find
it
it
somewhat
somewhat
hard
hard
to
to
that
that
web
web
scraping
scraping
is
is
the
the
primary
primary
reason
reason
they
they
would
would
implement
implement
such
such
drastic
drastic
changes,
changes
especially
especially
because
because
this
this
would
would
reduce
reduce
advertising
advertising
impressions,
impressions
which
which
is
is
though
though
by
by
far
far
its
its
biggest
biggest
source
source
of
of
revenue.
revenue
If
if
we
we
do
do
a
a
little
little
more
more
research,
research
we'll
we'll
find
find
that
that
Twitter
twitter
had
had
been
been
refusing
refusing
to
to
pay
pay
its
its
Google
google
Cloud
cloud
bill,
bill
at
at
least
least
until
until
recently.
recently
Sundar
sundar
had
had
to
to
hit
hit
up
up
Elon
elon
via
via
SpaceX,
spacex
its
its
other
other
company
company
that
that
launches
launches
rockets
rockets
into
into
fake
fake
space,
space
which
which
also
also
does
does
business
business
with
with
GCP.
gcp
It's
it's
not
not
the
the
only
only
bill
bill
that
that
Twitter
twitter
hasn't
hasn't
paid
paid
and
and
was
was
recently
recently
evicted
evicted
from
from
its
its
Boulder,
boulder
Colorado
colorado
offices
offices
over
over
unpaid
unpaid
rent.
rent
The
the
Google
google
Cloud
cloud
contract
contract
is
is
a
a
way
way
bigger
bigger
deal,
deal
though,
though
at
at
100
100
of
of
1,000,000
1,000,000
of
of
dollars
dollars
per
per
year
year
and,
and
coincidentally,
coincidentally
expired
expired
on
on
June
june
30th.
30th
It's
it's
pure
pure
speculation
speculation
whether
whether
these
these
as
as
new
new
features
features
are
are
related
related
to
to
the
the
Google
google
Cloud
cloud
contract.
contract
But
but
like
like
I've
i've
said
said
many
many
times
times
before,
before
once
once
you
you
get
get
locked
locked
into
into
a
a
cloud
cloud
platform,
platform
they
they
have
have
you
you
by
by
the
the
balls.
balls
If
if
You
you
stop
stop
paying
paying
the
the
bill,
bill
you
you
first
first
get
get
bumped
bumped
down
down
to
to
a
a
rate
rate
limited
limited
tier,
tier
and
and
then
then
eventually
eventually
the
the
lights
lights
go
go
out.
out
That
that
could
could
explain
explain
why
why
Titter
titter
implemented
implemented
a
a
rate
rate
limit
limit
because
because
they're
they're
likely
likely
right
right
in
in
the
the
middle
middle
of
of
migrating
migrating
their
their
infrastructure
infrastructure
to
to
a
a
as
as
very
very
high,
high
which
which
are
are
still
still
pretty
pretty
hard
hard
to
to
come
come
by.
by
Another
another
theory
theory
going
going
around
around
is
is
that
that
Elon
elon
is
is
actually
actually
fighting
fighting
a
a
battle
battle
against
against
agencies
agencies
like
like
the
the
CIA
cia
and
and
NSA,
nsa
who
who
are
are
once
once
behind
behind
all
all
the
the
scraping
scraping
and
and
trying
trying
to
to
use
use
Twitter
twitter
to
to
create
create
a
a
death
death
star
star
of
of
censorship.
censorship
I
i
don't
don't
know
know
if
if
that's
that's
just
just
Elon
elon
fanboy
fanboy
fiction,
fiction
but
but
I'm
i'm
still
still
putting
putting
my
my
money
money
on
on
him
him
in
in
his
his
upcoming
upcoming
death
death
match
match
against
against
Zuck
zuck
in
in
the
the
Roman
roman
Colosseum.
colosseum
He's
he's
got
got
the
the
body
body
of
of
a
a
mid
mid
century
century
refrigerator,
refrigerator
and
and
I
i
just
just
don't
don't
see
see
any
any
way
way
5
5
foot
foot
8
8
Zuck
zuck
will
will
be
be
able
able
to
to
overcome
overcome
the
the
size
size
differential.
differential
But
but
let
let
me
me
know
know
whose
whose
corner
corner
urine
urine
in
in
the
the
comments.
comments
No
no
matter
matter
the
the
outcome
outcome
though,
though
the
the
important
important
thing
thing
is
is
that
that
we
we
enjoy
enjoy
our
our
bread
bread
and
and
circuses.
circuses
This
this
has
has
been
been
the
the
Code
code
Report.
report
Thanks
thanks
for
for
watching,
watching
and
and
I
i
will
will
see
see
you
you
in
in
the
the
next
next
one.
one
success
In a conversation between a host and a caller, the host discusses new features on Twitter, including a new rate limit and the use of a developer with an anime profile image to save the day. The host also discusses Twitter's recent struggles with Google Cloud's bill and the potential reasons behind it, including a battle against the CIA and NSA. The host concludes by discussing the importance of Twitter's bread and circuses and mentions a upcoming death match against Zuck.
The sad truth about Twitter’s rate limit
It is July 3, 2023, and you're watching the Code Report. In his latest 7 d chess move, Elon surprised Twitter users with some exciting new features. First, he decreed a rate limit for everyone on the platform. Non blue checks get to look at 600 tweets per day, while paying members get to look at up to 6,000 tweets. That may sound harsh, but this is just some tough love from the Twitter king to help us beat off our social media addictions. If you're having withdrawals, though, you can always count on a programmer with an anime profile image to save the day, like this person who developed a Chrome plugin that uses the old Twitter theme and bypasses the rate limit. The second new feature is that Twitter shut off all public access to the website, so currently, you must be signed in to look at tweets. In other words, Twitter is almost a full blown paywall site now. Officially, these new features were deployed on a Friday in a panic because too many bots and web scrapers were accessing tweets with automated tools. Web scraping is an absolutely despicable practice, and if you wanna learn how to do it at an industrial scale, check out this video on my second channel. To add insult to injury, Twitter went down for a while yesterday, and it appears some bad JavaScript code made it into production that would call the API in an infinite loop from the client side, resulting in a self inflicted DDoS attack. The Thing is, though, real men test in production. I was able to obtain exclusive access to this garbage code, and what we have is a recursive async function that will catch and fetch forever. But Twitter's been around for nearly 20 years at this point, so why is web scraping all of a sudden a big problem? Well, a couple months ago, Twitter shut down access to its free API and made way too expensive for any of us peasant level developers to access. This move also inspired the Reddit CEO to strap on a set of balls and take his API pricing to the moon to kill off 3rd party apps. Despite a massive failed protest, the pricing went into effect yesterday, and third party apps like Apollo are officially dead. Let's take a moment of silence for those we've lost. The thing about this whole Twitter fiasco is that I find it somewhat hard to that web scraping is the primary reason they would implement such drastic changes, especially because this would reduce advertising impressions, which is though by far its biggest source of revenue. If we do a little more research, we'll find that Twitter had been refusing to pay its Google Cloud bill, at least until recently. Sundar had to hit up Elon via SpaceX, its other company that launches rockets into fake space, which also does business with GCP. It's not the only bill that Twitter hasn't paid and was recently evicted from its Boulder, Colorado offices over unpaid rent. The Google Cloud contract is a way bigger deal, though, at 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars per year and, coincidentally, expired on June 30th. It's pure speculation whether these as new features are related to the Google Cloud contract. But like I've said many times before, once you get locked into a cloud platform, they have you by the balls. If You stop paying the bill, you first get bumped down to a rate limited tier, and then eventually the lights go out. That could explain why Titter implemented a rate limit because they're likely right in the middle of migrating their infrastructure to a as very high, which are still pretty hard to come by. Another theory going around is that Elon is actually fighting a battle against agencies like the CIA and NSA, who are once behind all the scraping and trying to use Twitter to create a death star of censorship. I don't know if that's just Elon fanboy fiction, but I'm still putting my money on him in his upcoming death match against Zuck in the Roman Colosseum. He's got the body of a mid century refrigerator, and I just don't see any way 5 foot 8 Zuck will be able to overcome the size differential. But let me know whose corner urine in the comments. No matter the outcome though, the important thing is that we enjoy our bread and circuses. This has been the Code Report. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
In a conversation between a host and a caller, the host discusses new features on Twitter, including a new rate limit and the use of a developer with an anime profile image to save the day. The host also discusses Twitter's recent struggles with Google Cloud's bill and the potential reasons behind it, including a battle against the CIA and NSA. The host concludes by discussing the importance of Twitter's bread and circuses and mentions a upcoming death match against Zuck.