Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter and became the CEO in 2022, the microblogging platform has managed to stay in the headlines, week after week. From Twitter Blue to two-factor authentication, users have been trying to wrap their heads around the new developments on the platform.
Among the reasons Twitter made news was multiple outages, bugs, and glitches. Twitter experienced at least four widespread outages in the month of February alone, compared to nine in all of 2022. In a matter of months, since Musk's takeover, the company has also seen multiple rounds of layoffs, including that of top executives and employees responsible for running the platform efficiently.
Here's a look at the recent Twitter outages which led to chaos on the microblogging platform.
API Issues
Twitter was down for many users on Monday. While some users found links that were not working, others were unable to see or post the photos accompanying the tweets. Some users also reported receiving a message that read, “Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint."
Twitter’s official support account responded to the outage as the handle tweeted, “Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed.” Musk also reacted to the "small API change" which caused the outage. He replied to one of the users, saying, "A small API change had massive ramifications. The code stack is extremely brittle for no good reason. Will ultimately need a complete rewrite."
An API, or application programming interface, is a set of defined rules that enable two applications to interact with each other, without a third party intervention. Last month, Twitter had announced that it will not be supporting free access to its API any longer and it will now be available as a paid service instead.
Problems in the 'For You' feed
Twitter was down for thousands of users on March 1, according to Downdetector. The users were unable to refresh their feed. The 'For You' feed, which collects tweets from people similar to those they follow, appeared to be restored within an hour of the initial issue, but the Following feed, which collects tweets from people users follow on Twitter, took longer to be restored, BBC reported.
Twitter timelines wouldn't update
On February 17, Twitter users reported many glitches as they struggled to see their updated timeline. The most common error message received by many users said, ‘Something went wrong. Try reloading.’ Many also complained issues regarding retweets and likes on the tweets.
iOS glitch
On February 15, the glitch was centered on the iOS app of Twitter while Android and website users did not flag any issues. Initially, the iOS users were unable to access the 'For You' section on Twitter, after which they received a notification saying the tweets were not loading properly. Acknowledging the glitch, the Twitter Support account handle had tweeted "Pardon the interruption!” iOS users may have experienced some trouble using Twitter earlier. Things should be back to normal now.”
Users unable to tweet
On February 8, Twitter users reported being unable to tweet, send direct messages, or follow other users. Many of them received a notification informing them that they had exceeded their daily tweet limit, even though they had not sent out a single tweet. Many users had received a notification saying "You are over the daily limit for sending Tweets" owing to the glitch.
Unable to verify via two factor authentication
In December 2022, a bug involving two-factor authentication codes prevented some Twitter users from accessing their accounts for days. Twitter users who logged out of their accounts or were trying to log into new devices said they couldn't access their accounts as Twitter was no longer sending six-digit authentication codes via text message.