Twitter rival Bluesky has been forced to temporarily pause sign-ups after experiencing a surge of interest following Elon Musk’s decision to introduce new limits to his social network. The tech billionaire began limiting the number of tweets people can read on Saturday, claiming that it was necessary to address “extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation”. The move prevents unverified users from seeing more than 600 Twitter posts a day, while paid subscribers can view up to 6,000. It prompted renewed interest in rival apps, including Mastodon, whose creator said 110,000 new users joined the platform in just one day. Bluesky, which was founded by former Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey, is currently in private beta, meaning people can only sign up if they have an invite code from another user. “We will temporarily be pausing Bluesky sign-ups while our team continues to resolve the existing performance issues,” the company said over the weekend. “We’ll keep you updated when invite codes will resume functionality. We’re excited to welcome more users to our beta soon!” Among those making the transition from Twitter to Bluesky to Twitter is Paul Cooper, host of the Fall of Civilization podcast. Last month, Mr Musk encouraged the history podcast to “please upload your podcasts” to Twitter, though Mr Cooper replied that he considered the platform “too compromised” to make such a move. “It’s become a safe haven for hate speech, and meanwhile crypto scammers and bots are paying to be boosted to the top of replies,” the podcast host wrote. “Everything that once made Twitter special seems to be leaching away.” Mr Musk said the limits introduced for Twitter users would be temporary, though did not specify when they would be removed. Twitter responded to a request from The Independent for more information with its customary poop emoji. Read More Twitter alternative Bluesky launches as Android app

The Streamy Awards 2023, which took place on August 27, has become a hot topic across the digital landscape

We've all seen controversial penalty shootouts – but never quite like this. The FIFA esports World Cup has ended in scandal this week after a penalty shootout which was branded a “disgrace” by the losing side. K esports organisation Futwiz lost the tournament’s grand final after their player’s controller overlay was shown on the main screen during the shootout, meaning everybody could see which way he was aiming. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Futwiz’s Australian player, Mark11, raised his arm several times to let officials know about the situation. However, the issue wasn’t resolved and he lost 5-4 overall, with admins deciding not to retake the penalties. Mark11 received the $150,000 second-place prize and his opponent, Team Gullit’s Dutch player Bachoore, left with the $300,000 top prize. Dan Bellis, the CEO of Futwiz, told Esports News UK: “The players are instructed to raise their hand if there’s an issue and it will be dealt with – but to keep on playing until then (stopping the game results in a disqualification). “In the 2v2 Club World Cup Semi-Final one of our players’ console was freezing after kick off – he raised his hand and the game was nullified and restarted. The protocol is communicated to the players and they’ve bottled it in the biggest occasion. “Just to clarify – this is nothing to do with EA, the world finals (for the last time as the partnership is ending) are handed over to FIFAe and the agency they use – ‘The eSports Company’.” A spokesperson for FIFA said: “All players have been informed at the start of the FIFAe World Cup 2023 that if they actively decide themselves to show the input overlay, it might be displayed on broadcast and in the arena. “Throughout the entire competition, the feed of the home console was visible on the stream and within the arena. This also included games with the input overlay. “The same situation occurred during the semi-finals including a penalty shootout and no further concerns have been raised by the players prior to the start of the final. After thorough review of the footage, we can also confirm that no player received a competitive advantage as the opposite team only watched their own screen.” But fellow esports players did not agree. British FIFA pro player Tom Leese described it as “the lowest day in FIFA esports history”. Pro FIFA player for Burnley, Jack Sharp added: “You’ve got a guy who’s communicating to the refs multiple times that something isn’t right and he’s being ignored? Scandalous.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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