Elon Musk has been a controversial figure in the past, more so since he acquired Twitter in October 2022. While the groundbreaking deal boosted his net worth big time to $237 billion as it stands, since then, he’s made quite a few changes to the platform—reinstating controversial accounts, introducing silver and gold ticks, and launching Twitter Blue. But while doing all this, he stayed out of the Formula 1 community’s way. Until yesterday. And his move has made him Public Enemy No. 1 in the F1 Twitter community.

As per the new regulations, Musk tweeted yesterday, verified accounts can read 6000 tweets a day, unverified accounts can read 600, and new users can only read 300. On top of that, people without accounts won’t be able to view any tweets. According to him, the organization did this to “address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation,” but everyone knows it’s just another way for Twitter to satisfy his capitalist interests. But the reason he gave did nothing to help his cause with F1 fans.

F1 fans and Twitter: An unbreakable duo at risk

Why is Twitter so important to F1 fans? Twitter, in general, is one of the fastest sources of breaking news and information. Most organizations use the platform before anything else to break the news to the public. With so much happening in the F1 world at all times—race updates, driver changes, rumors, driver comments and reactions, memes, and banter—just the official F1 Twitter account posts upwards of 50 tweets daily. But the official F1 account isn’t the only source fans turn to. They follow other teams, their favorite drivers, and other organizations dedicated to F1. 

But aren’t 600 tweets a lot? 600 might seem like a huge number, but as mentioned earlier, the official F1 account alone posts around 50 tweets daily. Over and above that, teams and drivers post their own updates regularly. And when it’s a race weekend, F1 fans’ feeds are flooded with updates. So to answer the question, 600 tweets aren’t a lot.

This update couldn’t have come at a worse time. The F1 circus is currently in Austria for a Sprint weekend. Regular race weekends are jam-packed with updates enough, but on Sprint weekends, with double the racing action, you can imagine the amount of information flooding into fans’ accounts. So when the news about new Twitter updates caught wind in the F1 community. 

F1 fans call Elon Musk’s new daily Twitter limit “unacceptable”

Given how F1 fans get most of their updates from Twitter, you can imagine how the 600-tweets-per-day reading limit might become an issue for them. When a fan reposted Elon Musk’s tweet and captioned it, “some of us are F1 fans, Elon… 😐😐😐😐,” a plethora of fans joined in solidarity to complain about the problem.

Most fans complained about how they get most of their F1 updates from different Twitter accounts, and putting this limit on usage would hamper them from consuming that information.

Considering the Austrian GP is a Sprint weekend, a few fans expressed how this update couldn’t have come at a worse time. The amount of content posted during Sprint weekends almost doubles because of the increased racing action.

Musk posted the tweet on Saturday, one day before race day. And on race days, especially during the race, the F1 community lives on Twitter. So one fan expressed just how unacceptable this new limit is.

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The only options F1 fans seem to have now are either to leave the platform to find another news source or invest in Twitter Blue. Blue is a paid subscription with a blue tick against a user’s account, giving them access to more tweets. So, in effect, Twitter has become a dictatorship—if users can’t satisfy Musk’s capitalist interests, they would have to settle for less or leave the platform entirely.

While most fans were talking only about F1, one fan mentioned how they’re also a BTS fan apart from being an F1 fan. Both fandoms practically post on Twitter non-stop. So they will definitely have a problem.

Are you one of the people grieving the limited tweets you’ll get access to from now on?

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