Why Twitter deleted years of photos – Including Ellen Degeneres’ iconic Oscars selfie
A surprising move on Twitter, now named X under Elon Musk’s management, saw many memorable photos, like Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscars selfie, disappear. These changes, coming after Musk’s latest tweaks, have left users scratching their heads. Among the debated updates by Musk was the removal of the popular block feature and issues with the t.co links, a tool for sharing images. This shift directly affected the visibility of Ellen’s selfie. Ellen’s famous 2014 Oscars selfie no longer appears on X. pic.twitter.com/MZ6Pm6R4LM — Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 20, 2023 Users are not happy. Many miss the block feature, even though Musk suggests a stronger mute option could replace it. But there’s a catch: companies like Apple and Google want block features for their app stores. In a…
A surprising move on Twitter, now named X under Elon Musk’s management, saw many memorable photos, like Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscars selfie, disappear. These changes, coming after Musk’s latest tweaks, have left users scratching their heads.
Among the debated updates by Musk was the removal of the popular block feature and issues with the t.co links, a tool for sharing images. This shift directly affected the visibility of Ellen’s selfie.
Ellen’s famous 2014 Oscars selfie no longer appears on X. pic.twitter.com/MZ6Pm6R4LM
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 20, 2023
Users are not happy. Many miss the block feature, even though Musk suggests a stronger mute option could replace it. But there’s a catch: companies like Apple and Google want block features for their app stores. In a surprising move, Musk told a user to just delete their account after they shared concerns about the changes.
X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, tried to calm the storm. She talked about keeping users safe and promised better features soon. On the tech side, Aqueel Miqdad, an X engineer, mentioned they’re working on making muted users see posts, but not interact.
But a bigger problem lurks. A glitch, under Musk’s watch, removed a lot of older media, mainly from before December 2014. Some think it might be to save money, while others note it affects specific posts with photos and short URLs. While many famous tweets were hit, Obama’s 2012 post is still there.
Four more years. pic.twitter.com/bAJE6Vom
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012
Tech detective Tom Coates found that Twitter got rid of images and links from 2011-2014. These images and links are gone, but they’re still stored somewhere on Twitter. Interestingly, anything added after 2016 is fine, hinting at a connection to changes Twitter made that year.
More vandalism from @elonmusk. Twitter has now removed all media posted before 2014. Thats – so far – almost a decade of pictures and videos from the early 2000s removed from the service.
— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) August 19, 2023
For example, here’s a search of my media tweets from before 2014. https://t.co/FU6K34oqmA
With all these changes and issues, many users are questioning if Musk leading X is a good thing, pointing to ongoing drama.
