Twitter changes policy on DMs, users to receive messages in ‘request inbox’ from verified non-followers

Twitter on Wednesday announced that it will make changes to its policy on direct messages from July 14. Going forward, the microblogging platform will allow only verified users to send direct messages to non-followers, effectively restricting people who have not subscribed to the company’s $8/month Twitter Blue plan. The Elon Musk-owned company added that users who previously had their permissions set to allow message requests from everyone will be migrated to this new setting, but can switch back at any time.

The microblogging site said that starting July 14, users will get messages only from accounts they follow in their primary inbox, while messages from verified users they don’t follow will go to a secondary ‘request inbox’. This means users who are not subscribed to the $8/month Twitter Blue plan, will not be able to send DMs to users who don’t follow them.

This is in line with executive chairman Elon Musk’s effort to boost Twitter Blue subscriptions and restrict users who are not willing to shell out $8 every month for the plan.

“Starting as soon as July 14th, we’re adding a new messages setting that should help reduce the number of spam messages in DMs.” the social media site tweeted from its handle.

“With the new setting enabled, messages from users who you follow will arrive in your primary inbox, and messages from verified users who you don’t follow will be sent to your message request inbox,” the tweet added.

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Earlier this month, Musk, who is also the chief technology officer (CTO) of the company, announced that Twitter would be restricting the number of posts users could see to 6,000 for verified users, 600 for unverified users and 300 for new users. These steps were taken to address ‘extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation’. he said.

He later said that the number of tweets will be gradually increased to 8,000 for verified users, 800 for unverified and 400 for new users. The limit was eventually increased to 10,000 tweets per day for verified users, 1,000 for unverified users and 500 for new unverified users.

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