• by Colin Kirkland , June 30, 2023

Recent reports are surfacing of people's inability to view tweets without logging into their Twitter accounts, marking a sudden change from how the social media platform has always operated. Users are puzzled as to whether this is a glitch or a strategic push for more official users.

When attempting to view a tweet, user profile or thread without logging in -- which people have been able to do since Twitter's founding -- users are now experiencing an immediate sign-in screen that fully obscures their view, regardless of how they try to access the website.

With technical issues and unpredictable glitches becoming commonplace at Twitter since billionaire Elon Musk’s hostile takeover last year, accompanied by Twitter's lack of response to press inquiries, it is unsure as to why this is happening and what it means for the company’s uncertain future.

“If tweets aren’t publicly accessible, search engine algorithms could rank the site’s content lower, meaning that fewer people would be directed to the site from Google,” notes TechCrunch. “Also, it’s just kind of annoying.”

“If intentional, this means Twitter is nudging visitors harder to become official users,” writes The Verge. “And, by extension, potential Twitter Blue subscribers.”

More people being forced to create Twitter accounts if they want to view a tweet, profile or thread would increase the platform's user base and potentially increase the chances of convincing more users to subscribe to Twitter Blue, which offers exclusive features like tweet-editing and user verification.

Only about 0.3% of Twitter users are currently subscribed to Twitter Blue. This is a far lower percentage than Musk originally predicted, hoping that a subscription model would provide the platform with an alternative and reliable source of revenue, especially since the company's U.S. advertising revenue dropped 59% between April and May compared to the previous year.