The latest mistake from X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has been resolved. The company has fixed the error that caused images posted prior to 2014 to disappear from its site.
X addressed the issue on its official support account, referring to the inability to display older images as a “bug.” “No images or data were lost. We fixed the bug, and the issue will be fully resolved in the coming days,” the company wrote on Monday.
Over the weekend we had a bug that prevented us from displaying images from before 2014. No images or data were lost. We fixed the bug, and the issue will be fully resolved in the coming days.
— Support (@Support) August 21, 2023
Over the weekend, users noticed that images and links created through Twitter’s built-in URL shortener that were shared prior to 2014 were wiped. As The Verge noted, that glitch included taking out Ellen DeGeneres’ viral Oscar selfie, which at the time became the most retweeted post in the company’s history. It currently stands as the third most retweeted post of all time, not including posts that involved a cash or prize giveaway.
X user Tom Coates was among the first to notice the glitch. Though it appears images have been restored, the shortened links were still broken at the time of publication.
X did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Though the disappearance of these photos was unintentional, it’s far from the only move the company has made to upset its user base. On Friday, owner Elon Musk announced that the block feature would be removed, which prompted an immediate backlash.
In fact, nearly all of the decisions made under Musk’s ownership have been met with criticism. These have included transforming the blue checkmark system into a paid subscription model, penalizing companies that do not spend enough by taking away their gold checkmark, no longer allowing non-users to search the platform, temporarily limiting how many tweets could be seen in a day and rebranding the established Twitter to X.
In October of 2022, Musk acquired the social media company for $44 billion. By December, he stepped down as CEO, a position that is now occupied by Linda Yaccarino.
