Is Twitter down in the UK and worldwide? Elon Musk introduces post limits - what 'rate limit exceeded' means

Twitter was down for many users this weekend as people were left unable to use the social media platform.

The app is displaying a 'rate limit exceeded' message for those trying to refresh their feed on Saturday, 1 July. Issues are being reported on the app as well as the website.

For some users, they are unable to search profiles or topics as well as the feed. DownDetector first received reports of issues with Twitter just after 12pm (noon) on Saturday.

On DownDetector the majority of issues are being reported on the mobile app but issues are being experienced on the desktop version of Twitter as well.

Elon Musk later confirmed that the company was starting to introduce "temporary limits" on the number of posts users can view each day.

What does 'rate limit exceeded' mean?

If you are seeing the message - it means that you have reached the maximum limit of posts you can see on that day. On the mobile app this appears to limit the replies you can see underneath a post as well as impacting if you can refresh your feed.

Explaining the measures, Musk tweeted: "To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we've applied the following temporary limits:

• verified accounts are limited to reading 6,000 posts/ day
• unverified accounts to 600 posts/ day
• new unverified accounts to 300 posts/day

What has the reaction been?

But the move sparked a scathing response from many users, including Matt Navarra, a social media consultant and industry analyst, who told the PA news agency: “Never have I seen a social network try so hard to put people off using a platform and to completely curtail any potential future for its business.”

And Adam Leon Smith, of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT – the UK’s professional body for IT, said it is “very odd to start rate-limiting the reading of a social network”, as limiting users’ scroll time “will affect advertising revenue”.

Mr Musk has not said when exactly the limits will increase, or how long the restrictions will be in place for.

In the UK, thousands of people complained of problems accessing the site from 12pm onwards on Saturday. #Twitterdown and RIP Twitter began trending as frustrated users were faced with a message saying “Rate limit exceeded. Please wait a few moments then try again”.

After taking over Twitter, Mr Musk laid off some 80% of its 8,000 global staff – and admitted it resulted in the platform losing a large amount of its functionality.

More to follow.