Twitter trouble after character count raised to 4,000 per Tweet
The social media platform, owned by Elon Musk, increased the possible size of a tweet to around 500 words, but the site suffered glitches subsequently.
Twitter, the micro-blogging social media platform owned by Elon Musk, increased on Wednesday the possible size of a tweet to 4,000 characters, which is around 500 words for a standard text.
The previous limit was 280, which was already an increase on the original 140 character limit imposed when Twitter was launched. That original change, which was met by some vociferous complaints, was put through in 2017.
A limit of 4,000 characters allows for far lengthier posts, with articles or essays of 500 words generally fitting into the new limit.
Twitter starts glitching after limit raised
After the change was put through, users noticed a number of problems with the service, though as yet there has been no indication the two were linked.
One problem was that Twitter did not allow some users to tweet claiming they were over a daily tweet limit, despite users not being anywhere near the 2,400 daily tweet limit. A work around, of scheduling tweets, was quickly discovered, though the error was also apparently also quickly fixed on Twitter’s side.
Other users complained the direct messages were broken, using the hashtag #twitterdown
After acquiring the company on October 27, 2022, Elon Musk laid off around half of Twitter employees as part of alleged cost-cutting measures. Experts warned that the loss of so many staff could adversely affect the service.
Twitter asks what people think of the new limit
Twitter tweeted out this using the new limit.
User Courtney Scott wasn’t keen saying it would be “like reading a book”. A short book admittedly, but the point was made.