Twitter says it will restrict TweetDeck access to verified users only

Twitter users will need to be verified to access TweetDeck, the social media company said, just days after it introduced temporary limits on how many tweets people can read.

The change will take effect in 30 days, the site said in a tweet which also revealed the launch of a “new, improved version” of the feature.

It is not yet clear if Twitter will charge users for both the new and old version of TweetDeck.

TweetDeck is widely used by businesses and news organisations to easily monitor different streams of content.

The move has already sparked a backlash.

The changes come as the platform struggles to retain advertising revenue under billionaire Elon Musk‘s ownership.

On Saturday Mr Musk said that both verified and unverified users would have a limited number of posts they could read per day “to address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation.”

The billionaire, who took over Twitter in October, said verified accounts are being limited to reading 6,000 posts a day, while verified accounts can only read 600 posts a day, and new unverified accounts limited to just 300 per day.

Since taking over Twitter, Mr Musk has laid off some 80% of its 8,000 global staff.

He has admitted it resulted in the platform losing a large amount of its functionality.

He introduced several reforms of the site such as the scrapping of legacy “blue ticks”, which verified a user’s identity and were replaced by a paid-for subscription called Twitter Blue.

High-profile figures and celebrities said the move leaves the platform open to imposters and disinformation.

Users who pay £9.60 a month, or £115.20 annually, receive the blue tick and can make longer tweets up to 10,000 characters.