Twitter Says Its Fixed the Bug That Deleted All Photos and Links Before 2014

During the past weekend, reports surfaced regarding an issue impacting older tweets. After a thorough investigation, it was identified that posts predating December 2014, containing either images or links shortened by Twitter, were affected.

Tom Coates’ post brought attention to this matter, highlighting that even the iconic 2014 Ellen DeGeneres selfie from the Oscars, known as the “most retweeted ever,” was missing its accompanying image.

However, the Twitter support staff has been quick to resolve the issue. Here is what it said:

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.

The post does not delve into specific details about the nature of the bug, its onset, or the reasons for the unspecified duration needed to rectify it. Further exploration revealed that Twitter’s alterations in 2016 utilized metadata for tweets published from December 2014 onwards.

This enhancement aimed to supplement additional data from linked web pages and facilitate attachments without impacting a tweet’s character count. It appears that only earlier posts were vulnerable to this bug.

Certain speculations suggest that the issue could have arisen due to an attempt to migrate the company’s domains from Twitter.com to X.com. However, the exact cause remains unclear. What is apparent is that, for a period of time, a considerable number of old tweets bore a resemblance to posts made by Stephen A. Smith.

TAke a look, y'all: IMG_4346.jpeg

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) May 27, 2015

Via: The Verge