Elon Musk admits X 'may fail' after glitch deletes Twitter photos

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Elon Musk, the owner of the app formerly known as Twitter, has said the social media site “may fail”, after a glitch caused pictures posted before December 2014 to be deleted. In a post on the site, renamed X, Musk said: “The sad truth is that there are no great ‘social networks’ right now.” He added: “We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one.”

Over the weekend, a glitch on the platform meant that the site removed pictures and links on posts made before December 2014. The posts showed broken links instead of the pictures and videos that were previously there. Several users noticed the glitch, with the technologist Tom Coates among those pointing it out. Coates referred to the glitch as “epic vandalism by Musk” and suggested it could be a cost-saving exercise.

Ellen DeGeneres’ famous Oscars selfie from 2014 was also removed but later restored. The photo became the platform’s most retweeted photo ever, with more than 2m shares on the platform. Former US president Barack Obama’s viral tweet after his 2012 election win remained unaffected.

Some users speculated that the glitch was caused by an effort to save costs on storage data, while others attributed it to changes made on the platform in 2016 when it added “enhanced URL enrichment”, designed to show previews for linked websites and attachments beyond the company’s 140 character limit, according to The Verge.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/21/elon-musk-x-glitch-deletes-twitter-photos-pictures-links

---

Mission accomplished?

[Walleye]

1. So, conservative, still think we need a businessman for president?

[Nasruddin]

6. Some changes

* We're selling off the California division. It doesn't fit with our core mission.
* Due to cost overruns and lack of profitability, we're laying off the state of Alabama. Residents have 10 days to leave and will receive a bus ticket and a key chain in compensation.
* US military is now open for bids on its next mission. If your need to overrun or destroy your neighbor is urgent, please ask for express service in your application.

That was my old nightmare. Now add:

* A new Hate channel is being added to all local broadcast areas and cable services, and web site streaming is available.
This channel will publicize this week's scapegoat so hate can be directed appropriately. Please support our
advertisers and sponsors!

[SouthernDem4ever]

35. And at night it will run old Rush Limbaug show reruns

While advertising junky products no one can use.

[Lonestarblue]

7. I have never understood why people think a business leader would do a better job as president.

Especially in today’s environment, a successful business leader has the primary role of delivering as much profit as possible to mostly already rich shareholders and, as part of that goal, enriching themselves through multi-million dollar bonuses and stock shares. To accomplish those goals, they pay employees as little as possible, find ways to deny benefits like healthcare to as many workers as possible (like limiting lower-paid employees to 30 hours per week to avoid paying any benefits), move jobs to other countries to lower expenses, and lay off employees when operating expenses threaten profits and bonuses.

Now apply those policies to the government and see what you end up with—decreased Social Security, limits on Medicare, agency staffs cut to the bone with expectations that those remaining will just take on the extra work, etc. Biden, as a career politician, has done a far better job as president than Trump the businessman ever would or could.

[Walleye]

15. Absolutely, Biden understands the mission. The government is not supposed to make a profit

[Quanto Magnus]

22. I agree

You need to be sociopathic to lead a large company in our current environment.

The President should not be a sociopath... We already elected one (at least) and look what happened....

[FredGarvin]

28. For every successful business leader

There is a failed business leader.

[SoFlaBro]

36. IF you run the motherfucking government as a business, what the fuck is the goddamn product?

Businesses produce things.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

29. Run government like a biz? Invest in people! Strong business invest in their people. Rs hate that

The last thing Rs want to do is invest in the American people, because somebody they hate might get a benefit.

Businesses that last invest in people.

Many Republicons love the "run government like a business or a household", but they can't do it and won't do it. Households invest heavily in the education of members. But a government paying out money for education for some people benefits the whole nation with a skilled workforce, with innovation and efficiency. Republicons won't do that if they can avoid it because somebody will get some free money. Then they turn around and say "Where's my free gubmnt money for Covid / ag subsidies / mil-indust-complex / oil depletion allowances / and on-and-on.

[Walleye]

34. Serious Republicans among themselves call workers human capital

I’m other words dispensable and interchangeable

[twodogsbarking]

2. Anyone believe him? Anyone?

[truthisfreedom]

4. Tesla and SpaceX are going strong.

He’s just no good at social stuff.

[getagrip_already]

21. He isn't running them.....

He just meddlesome, and that causes enough headaches. Neither would have made it without massive govt and state assistance.

He is far from a business genius. He just knows how to squeeze money out of companies that are successful in spite of his meddling.

[obamanut2012]

25. He has nothing to do with any of that

He doesn't run them, didn't create or invent anything to do with them, etc. Didn't invent Tesla, created nothing with them, same with Space X.

Gwynne Shotwell, who is very respected, runs Space X.

[hunter]

43. Bad choices...

Been there, done that.

[hunter]

42. Fuck those too.

Hint: It wasn't a "glitch."

[SpankMe]

12. No, I don't

This is clearly the first "glitch" in a coming series of "glitches" to delete old Tweets that can be used against Republicans in upcoming elections. Many ancient Tweets have been dug up that have been very problematic for some public figures. My hypothesis is that Elon has engineered this glitch to deprive detractors of material they can use to show the nominal bigotry of the right. Old Tweets have gotten people cancelled.

If this is true, and the deleted materials can't be restored, that should sink X as ongoing concern. These apps would normally have back-ups of this stuff somewhere that could be restored. It's like banking data. If X can't even pull that off, then they can't be trusted.

[obamanut2012]

26. Yup, 100% this

[Wednesdays]

30. In which case, we all need to archive all relevant tweets

going back to the earliest days of Twitter, so that we still have them should "X" become extinct.

[ashredux]

3. The question is, why did he spend so much money just to break it?

[Mawspam2]

10. He was goaded into it.

Bragging about his wealth, Moron posted he would buy Twitter for $54.20/share.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/14/business/elon-musk-420-twitter-filing.html

The problem came when Twitter said yes and demanded he follow through. Moron's ego wouldn't let him admit it was a joke, so after some "due diligence" bullshit about bots, he was forced to pay up or pay a $1Billion breakup fee.

Everyone would have been better off if Moron paid the $1B and called it off.

[Wednesdays]

32. I remember there was a delay, and rumor that Musk was about to back off the deal

And then some time later he followed through and bought the platform. I agree, it was probably his ego that made him go through with it.

[Historic NY]

5. so thats how they get rid of the policital cartoons.

he tried block removal he has had real shitty ads lately too. I just block them all

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Is X a tax writeoff for profits from TSLA?

$44 Billion tax loss carryforward?

[moniss]

24. I don't think it would work because he didn't

buy it through Tesla. But I'm not sure he can claim corporate losses against his personal income taxes. The losses stay with the corporation to the best of my knowledge. A sharp pencil tax person might be able to tell us more and maybe he could somehow benefit from the losses if he structured the purchase with personal loans to some holding entity etc.

[progressoid]

9. If we lost every tweet ever made, would that be such a bad thing?

Most of the "important" stuff exists elsewhere.

Twitter annual footprint amounts to 8,200 tons in CO2e emissions, the equivalent of 4,685 flights flying between Paris and New York.

https://envirotecmagazine.com/2022/12/08/tracking-the-ecological-cost-of-a-tweet/

[Wednesdays]

33. Everybody needs to step up and archive anything valuable

I pointed this out above in case there's anything politically relevant to future elections still available in past tweets.

[Garion_55]

11. storage costs makes sense

aws lets you put stuff in a storage archive that hasnt been accessed in a long time and charges you a lot less for that tier of storage. occasionally something from a decade ago will be called up but otherwise most of that old stuff just sits there never being accessed while you still have to pay for storing it. makes business sense to wipe out all that old content saving you on the bill.

[irisblue]

13. I use Twitter to check in with Ghana

An African county most Yanks know nothing about or can send info about


I think E is pulling his his pud for English speakers.

And the elonmusk fan bois are still saying ok and looking at jergans lotion as an assist

[Brainfodder]

14. Not just a way to save a ton on old content hardly touched on server clusters?

Trusting Elon's word?

[keithbvadu2]

16. He must be making money by the spaceshipfull with all these improvements.

[orleans]

17. so now will he apply for a "government bailout" (ala car manufactures & banks) ? nt

[BlueIdaho]

18. What a Drama Queen.

Dear Elon - nobody gives a shit.

[PortTack]

19. It wasn't failing until you the outstanding business man swept in to save it. Attended Trump U

For those skills…right?

[LiberalArkie]

20. How much will his tax writeoff be? He has been waiting a while for it to go under.

Can the IRS refuse someone deduction because of gross negligence?

[LudwigPastorius]

23. What a Xhit Xhow.

[Earth-shine]

27. He's playing Jenga with Twitter.

He keeps pulling pieces out of it to see if it will still function.

The writing is on the wall. It will become solely a right-wing cesspool social media platform.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. Always backup and archive files, with a copy off-site, preferably not in the cloud

Cloud is fine for active stuff, and can be a second backup / archive, but it is out of your control and may disappear at any time. Twitter/X is an example of a cloud storage.

The basic rule is three copies of every file: #1 on device, #2 on backup at hand in the building, #3 offsite, such as in a safe-deposit box or in safekeeping with a friend or family member miles away. Every couple of months after backing up on #2, swap #2 with #3 and refresh #3.

If your house burns down you lose #1 and #2, but have #3, if number 3 is far enough away not to be caught up in the same wild-fire.

Archiving is a separate issue from backup. The purpose of an archive is to have a permanent copy of files because if you accidentally delete a file or a file gets damaged, after a while it will be missing from the backups or they will all have a damaged copy of the file. With an archive, you have a good chance of restoring the file.

Every few years, make two complete copies of all files that can be found and put one off-site. Never update the archive, like you refresh the backups.

[PlutosHeart]

37. Even though Xitter has been important

to something I worked on with thousands of people in the last 3 years and still is important, I wish Xitter would go down. Permanently.

[BradBo]

38. I think he's wrong. It will fail because he removed "block".

Oh, and glitch’s due to poor maintenance. If it fails completely we will be able to go to another app.

[mwooldri]

39. I'd like to nominate Lead and EarlG as consultants.

They along with Skinner founded a social media site that has been running for over 22 years now...

Just thankful for the DU community... And Elon can go X himself..

[Cha]

40. Aww... Big X Shits again

I hate his fucking X.. it's like a Sign of musk RF Deleting Everything.

[LiberalLovinLug]

41. Also....yet another sign of a terrible businessman. You don't publicly predict failure

I wonder what his stockholders thought of that?

[SouthernDem4ever]

44. As far as I'm concerned X is already a failure

the unfinished swastika.