Twitter Appears To Be Blocking Unregistered Users From Viewing Tweets

Among its long list of recent foibles and mishaps, Twitter has apparently started blocking internet users from seeing tweets if they are not already logged into a Twitter account. Previously, anyone could view a Twitter profile and its tweets without the need to be logged in, provided the account isn't set to private. Now, that appears to have changed. Attempting to view a tweet, as of midday on June 30, brings up a screen prompting you to either log in, or create an account.

If this is an intended change and not just one of Twitter's many recent outages and issues, then it could have a huge impact on how people use a significant portion of the internet. Not only will it be harder to read funny posts in tweet roundups, but also how internet users receive news and stay up to date on everything from Supreme Court rulings to the War in Ukraine. A large portion of vital breaking news is disseminated through Twitter.

As of now, Twitter's blog has not made any mention of possible changes, with its most recent post dating back to April. Additionally, neither Linda Yaccarino, the new Twitter CEO, or Elon Musk have made any mention of it. Although certainly disheartening as one of the largest social media platforms out there, Twitter blocking unregistered users from seeing the site's content has long been a practice for sites like Facebook — which is known for being very selective of how users without a Facebook account see content.

Similarly, the beta-only Twitter clone Bluesky doesn't allow unregistered users to see any posts on the site, and requires an account to even browse. Whether or not this is problem on Twitter's end, or a purposeful change, has yet to be acknowledge. Regardless of the motive, some content on the internet might be a little harder to read or view if you don't have a Twitter account on standby.