Elon Musk admits Twitter is hit with ‘multiple internal and external issues’ – as tech meltdown leaves users unable to like and read messages
- Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk admitted: ‘Multiple internal and external issues simultaneously today. Should be fully back on track later tonight’
- Users were unable to like tweets, nor access their direct messages
Twitter users found themselves unable to properly use the social media site on Wednesday night after a series of ‘internal and external’ issues.
Users on Elon Musk’s site realized they could no longer follow accounts or access their direct messages – while the platform experienced a slew of widespread technical problems.
The company tweeted from its ‘support’ account: ‘Twitter may not be working as expected for some of you. Sorry for the trouble. We´re aware and working to get this fixed.
Elon later admitted: ‘Multiple internal & external issues simultaneously today. Should be fully back on track later tonight.’
Musk said that the app was experience a slew of technical issues on Wednesday
A sign at Twitter headquarters is shown in San Francisco, December 8, 2022
Users first noticed the problem when they tried to send tweets and received a message saying they had reached their ‘tweet limit.’
According to DownDetector, there was a spike in people saying they had issues with the social media site around 6pm EST.
While Twitter has for years limited the number of tweets an account can send, it is 2,400 per day – or 100 an hour – far more than most regular, human-run accounts send on the platform.
Users also had trouble when they tried to follow another Twitter user, getting a message ‘You are unable to follow more people at this time’ with a link to the company’s policy on follow limits.
Twitter’s long-standing limit on how many accounts a single user can follow in a single day is 400 – again, more than a regular Twitter user would generally reach on any given day.
It is not clear what caused Wednesday’s meltdown. But Musk assured users that everything would be back up and running later on in the night.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Elon Musk broke the world record for amassing the largest losses to his personal fortune in history – wiping £135billion ($165billion) off his wealth between November 2021 and December 2022, according to Guinness World Records.
It comes after the share value in Musk’s electric car firm Tesla crashed by around 65 per cent after he bought Twitter last year, a move that spooked investors.
The losses surpass the previous record of £47billion by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000.
In December, Bernard Arnault overtook Musk – now worth around £152billion – as the world’s richest person.
The figures were based on those available from publisher Forbes.
Guinness said Musk’s true losses could be higher than the figure given.
His £36bn takeover of Twitter sparked concerns among investors Mr Musk was not paying enough attention to Tesla.
The estimated loss is based on the value of his shares, which could regain their value. The value of Tesla shares dropped around 65 per cent in 2022.