Twitter announced that it is limiting the number of daily direct messages unverified users can send in an effort its says reduces spam, NBC News reported.

The change went into effect Friday, according to a message on the Help Center. To increase the number of daily messages allowed, the social media company is prodding users to subscribe to Twitter Blue, a subscription service the company launched last year.

@TwitterSupport tweeted: “We’ll soon be implementing some changes in our efforts to reduce spam in Direct Messages. Unverified accounts will have daily limits on the number of DMs they can send. Subscribe today to send more messages: twitter.com/i/twitter_blue…”

PCMag reported that Twitter did not specify what the daily limit is, but in a support document, the company says it’s imposing the restriction to help the bird site cut down on spam.

Still, setting a cap on direct messages also looks like an attempt to push users into paying for Twitter Blue, which starts at $8 per month and offers several premium features, including the verified blue checkmark. Last week, Twitter’s owner Elon Musk conceded the company continues to bleed cash due to advertising revenue dropping by 50%, PCMag reported.

According to PCMag, some Twitter users are already blasting Twitter for imposing restrictions on direct messages. That’s because it looks like verified users paying for Twitter Blue can still send as many DMs as they want – whether it be legitimate messages or spam.

Engadget reported that Twitter has again made its platform a little less useable for people who choose not to pay for a Blue subscription.

According to Engadget, Elon Musk tweeted this month that Twitter is suffering from an ongoing negative cash flow, because it’s advertising revenue has dropped by 50 percent. Even if money from subscriptions can’t make up for that, it’s still money in the company’s pocket.

The Hill reported that Twitter’s move to limit the number of direct messages a user can send has come under criticism for punishing users that do not pay for Twitter Blue, the site’s premium subscription service. Blue subscribers would not have a limit on direct messages.

According to The Hill, the policy change comes weeks after Twitter announced that non-paying users would have the number of posts they can see per day limited. That change was sparked by technological limitations, Twitter owner Elon Musk said.

In addition, The Hill reported that the Twitter laid off a majority of its staff and has reportedly stopped paying rent at its office spaces. Many advertisers left Twitter after Musk took over the platform and removed the bans of the content creators who were nixed from the platform in previous years.

Personally, I’ve grown really tired of Twitter. I don’t see why Elon Musk thinks that strongly pushing people to buy Twitter Blue will solve all of the company’s financial problems. In my opinion, the choices Mr. Musk has made since he bought Twitter appear to be haphazardly chosen.

Twitter Blue’s struggles since its launch nearly six months ago are more severe than previously revealed, new data suggests. Since Musk’s version of the subscription service launched last November, Twitter has only been able to convert around 640,000 Twitter users into paying Twitter Blue subscribers as of the end of April, Mashable reported.

Mashable also reported that while those numbers are lackluster, an even more telling detail about Twitter Blue is just how many of its earliest subscribers have canceled their subscriptions.

Out of about 150,000 early subscribers to Twitter Blue, just around 68,157 have stuck around and maintained a paid subscription as of April 30. Subscriptions are $8 per month – $11 on mobile.

According to Mashable, the total early subscriber numbers are linked directly to internal leaks published by the Washington Post last year showing that at total of 150,000 users originally signed up for Twitter Blue within just a few days of its launch in November. Twitter temporarily disabled new signups for about a month shortly after those users subscribed as a result of accounts signing up for Blue with the intent to impersonate major brands on the platform.

Mashable noted, that means around 81,843 users, or 54.5 percent, of Twitter users who subscribed to Twitter Blue when it first launched in November are no longer subscribed to the service. That’s an abnormally high churn rate for an online subscription services. Churn rate is the percentage of uses that unsubscribe from a service.

Twitter Blue is a paid offering from Twitter which provides subscribers with premium feature such as an edit button. However, it appears the most enticing features for subscribers are Musk’s featured additions to the service – namely the blue verification checkmark and the algorithm boost that provides Blue subscribers with prioritization in the For You feed and in the replies to tweets.

However, numerous Twitter Blue users have voiced their displeasure to Musk publicly on the platform about what they believe to be inadequate amounts of boosted reach. Mashable previously reported in March that around half of Twitter Blue subscribers have less than 1,000 followers.

Mashable reported that so few large accounts were formerly verified under Twitter’s old, pre-Musk verification system had signed up for Twitter Blue, that the company has since given out free “complementary” subscriptions to the service to many users with at least 1 million followers.

Personally, I have noticed that some celebrities on Twitter have publicly posted that they were not paying for Twitter Blue. As an example, Stephen King tweeted: “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.”

I think the only reason some celebrities who have over 1,000 followers were given a free Twitter Blue subscription was to make it look as though Twitter Blue was popular. Information from Mashable makes it clear that Twitter Blue isn’t as popular as Elon Musk wants the world to think it is.