MTN Stops Free Unlimited Twitter Service Due To “Abuse”

MTN, South Africa’s second-biggest mobile phone operator, announced on its Twitter page on Wednesday that it has cancelled its free unlimited Twitter service.

The Telco said on its blog that it understands that data can be quite hefty on the pocket.

It added that “knowing how inseparable you and Twitter can be, due to all the trends keeping you constantly in the loop, you really can’t afford to miss out on anything. It’s for this reason that we have brought you free Twitter, which has been doing absolutely great!”

However, the mobile phone operator said “due to abuse of the free service, we have had to cap usage to 100MB per day. This means that you can still retweet, love, follow, unfollow and set your profile picture, but this will be limited to 100MB per day. Once you have reached your 100MB limit, you will be charged normal data rates.”

Due to abuse, we've had to cap our free Twitter service to 100MB per day. Normal data charges will apply thereafter: https://t.co/ZzTwhXMpMv

— MTN South Africa (@MTNza) June 14, 2017

The company added that Free Twitter SMS will still be available to subscribers.

“So don’t despair, we’ve still got your back. And to remind you; Twitter SMS is exactly like the Twitter you use on your web browser or app, but instead of using your data, you will receive SMS tweets from the people you have signed up to follow. Awesome, right? Maybe remove ‘right?’ at the top (first line), so that you don’t repeat it?”

But customers were not happy and see their reactions below:

What abuse? pic.twitter.com/IrKIIWocWm

— 👑IRVIN. (@irvin_stunna) June 14, 2017

What were you expecting when you just give people free twitter,they will tweet none https://t.co/Sya5QwmWdy should have anticipate this

— muranzie 🇿🇦 (@muranzie) June 15, 2017

Ndicinga yi "Happiness Abuse " pic.twitter.com/QVjrvqv75p

— 👑IRVIN. (@irvin_stunna) June 15, 2017