X, which was formerly known as Twitter until its recent rebranding, is having a problem displaying old posts that came with images attached or any hyperlinks converted through Twitter’s built-in URL shortener. It’s unclear when the problem started, but it was highlighted on Saturday afternoon in a post by Tom Coates, and a Brazilian vtuber, @DaniloTakagi, had pointed it out a couple of days earlier.

  • @chase_what_matters
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    12010 months ago

    Someone noted that basically all of the media from the Arab Spring—which was a massive Twitter moment—has been wiped out.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
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      7510 months ago

      I’m sure the Saudis who bankrolled The Muskrat’s purchase of Xitter had nothing to do with that.

      • @agent_flounder
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        510 months ago

        Not at all. This is totally a coincidence. Nothing to see here. Move along.

      • @afraid_of_zombies
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        -210 months ago

        I heard they “only” own 7 percent. Can you provide more details?

        • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
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          710 months ago

          What conspiracy? I said they didn’t have anything to do with it.

          Maybe you’re the one who needs more tin foil.

    • @FrankTheHealer
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      3010 months ago

      A great situation to point to when someone asks why decentralized social media is important

      • @agent_flounder
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        710 months ago

        And also why we need non profit foundations backing the big social media sites so their priorities aren’t increasing profit.

  • @kaitco
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    6410 months ago

    Ah, yes. A “glitch”. And, how fascinating that it affects links from the early days when Twitter was really gaining traction and being used to rouse populaces.

    The thing is, Musk, whether he was paid to do this or not, is acting purposefully. This is all a grand scheme to fully dismantle what was once our global town square. Twitter was once a place where “the people” could hold politicians, corporations, and the generally wealthy accountable for their actions publicly. In the past year, the platform has become unsteady, blue checks are untrustworthy, and even the name has changed to something that causes one to pause.

    I dislike the man as much as the next normal person, but all of this nonsense has been planned from the start. He’s not a complete idiot. These actions have been calculated steps to take away the voice of the people and eliminate a single source of truth as things get worse and worse.

    • Bizarroland
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      3110 months ago

      If you want further verification of that, look at where the money that he used to purchase Twitter came from.

      It came from the Middle East, it came from oppressive regimes with wealth inequalities equivalent to the difference between a newborn baby that has to pay the hospital bill for its own birth and Elon musk.

      It came from areas where people who were unhappy with the extreme laws that they were forced to live under used Twitter to organize so that they could vote and push for laws that brought them greater equality in life.

      The fact that Elon is also using Twitter to fragment the American population and prevent them from unifying in a vote or having a single location where everyone can go and talk about the things that they are interested in is secondary to that but also serves the purposes of Elon who profited immensely from the Republican tax cuts from 2016 to 2020.

      Elon went from a net worth of $11 billion dollars to $70 billion dollars in 4 years, and from $70 billion in 2020 to $219 billion dollars today, because the tax breaks that Trump instituted during his presidency have not been repealed or adjusted.

      • @t0lo
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        610 months ago

        Additionally the Arab spring started on social media, which literally toppled multiple Middle East regimes. This makes perfect sense

      • @Cybersteel
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        210 months ago

        Probably one of the few places where all sides of the political spectrum inhabited.

  • Phillip J Phry
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    4110 months ago

    What a dumpster fire. Meanwhile, I’m still getting alerts from my local fire department through twitter. Doesn’t exactly make me feel safe.

    • blivet
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      3010 months ago

      Some governmental entities have started setting up their own Mastodon servers. I think that’s really the way to go. There’s no reason emergency services should depend on Musk’s goodwill and technical competence.

        • @Potatos_are_not_friends
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          410 months ago

          Volunteer.

          Ive been helping small nonprofits move off of Twitter for the past few months. I’m sure a polite email can take you far.

      • @afraid_of_zombies
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        -210 months ago

        Like 2018 or so it seemed like everything the local governments in my area wanted to do was via Twatter. The library had some situation and was closing early today? Don’t check the website, check Twatter. The parks department is moving the summer concert to the rain date? Again only on Twatter. It took minutes to setup an account, it was free, and everyone could do it.

    • @TenderfootGungi
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      510 months ago

      Ours sends normal texts through the emergency system. Works ok.

        • Hyperreality
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          110 months ago

          10$ a month to get emergency alerts half an hour earlier, allowing you to beat traffic when a natural disaster hits.

  • @Potatos_are_not_friends
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    10 months ago

    And all those websites that embedded tweets are now fucked.

    And Elon Musk drove another spike into twitter. Websites are going to know not to embed tweets anymore, which will cut out another avenue of traffic to Twitter.

    What a idiot.

  • @Hazdaz
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    1610 months ago

    Guarantee this is related to the Trump indictments.

    • @Z4rK
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      510 months ago

      Which of them goes back so far?

      • @Hazdaz
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        810 months ago

        He was running for office for 2016 versus Hillary, but the run up to the election started way before that. Plus I’m sure Elon decided to maybe erase 6 to 12 months before Trump really went Twitter crazy just to make it seem less suspicious.

  • flying_monkies
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    1510 months ago

    If only there was a technology to make an archive copy you could selectively restore from…

    Pity

    • snooggums
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      1010 months ago

      I doubt the pictures were deleted or anything, they just fucked up the link shortener.

  • @ittu
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    1310 months ago

    twitter was a public register documenting many events worldwide and he’s actively destroying it.

    • @afraid_of_zombies
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      -210 months ago

      On the bright side if you go and twat now “screw you future historians trying to figure out stuff” you might manage to annoy someone in a thousand years.

      Hmm come to think of it. People should be make random references right now to really mess with the future. “I saw Zoey today, her brother John is called the Messiah by some”

  • @Adulated_Aspersion
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    1010 months ago

    “Glitch”

    I am sure that there was a lot of proof of a lot of wrongdoing in those tweets. And now they are miraculously gone.

    • @[email protected]
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      410 months ago

      Back then Twitter was much more open and there were places like the Library of Congress archiving everything. Things with historical significance will live on.

  • @expatriado
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    510 months ago

    losing old media, just like myspace