Thousands of Twitter users reported problems on Wednesday as the Elon Musk‑owned platform began allowing paying subscribers to post tweets up to 4,000 characters. The company acknowledged the issue in a tweet: “Twitter may not be working as expected for some of you. Sorry for the trouble. We’re aware and working to get this fixed.”
Reports of trouble spiked on Downdetector in the early afternoon in Silicon Valley and persisted for about two hours. Users complained of being unable to post messages, receiving notices that they had exceeded a daily tweet limit, and being unable to send direct messages. A daily cap of 2,400 tweets per user had been imposed to reduce strain on Twitter’s operations, according to U.S. media. In addition, many reported that TweetDeck, the popular dashboard for managing and viewing Twitter accounts, had stopped working.
The disruptions occurred on the same day Twitter added a new perk to its Blue subscription service, which costs $8 per month in the United States. Blue subscribers can now post tweets of up to 4,000 characters, far beyond the 280‑character limit for non‑paying users. In a lengthy announcement, the company reassured users: “But don’t worry, Twitter is still Twitter. We know longer tweets could mean a lot of scrolling, so they’ll be capped at 280 characters on your timeline and you’ll see a ‘Show more’ prompt to click and read the whole tweet.”
Musk’s mass layoffs of Twitter staff late last year have raised concerns about whether the company has enough engineering talent to keep the platform running smoothly. U.S. tech media reported that Musk instructed Twitter employees to set aside work on new features and focus on troubleshooting the current issues.
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