According to Digital Trends, there were later reports that the image had been restored, but at the time of the initial report, the photo was missing.
The funny thing is that the shortened URL links released in the same period also show issues on the platform.
Tom Coates commented in a series of posts on X: “Even if the images reappear, that doesn’t necessarily mean it was just a bug.” It’s also possible that the platform is experimenting with some changes and has quickly backed down due to the feedback received.”
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.
For example, here’s a search of my media tweets from before 2014. https://t.co/FU6K34oqmA
— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) August 19, 2023
Forbes recalled that Twitter only implemented the option to upload images natively in 2011, leading to the emergence of various previous image hosting services. One such service, TwitPic, was shut down in 2014, resulting in the disappearance of the images hosted on it. The current mystery, however, is that the images shared directly on Twitter between 2011 and 2014 have also disappeared.
An error occurred during domain migration
There is speculation that a fatal error occurred while attempting to migrate the site to its new X.com domain as part of a recent rebranding process.
Images shared directly to Twitter after 2016 do not appear to be affected by this situation, consistent with Twitter’s implementation of “Enhanced URL Enrichment”. This made it possible to view link previews and add photos without exceeding the 140-character limit.
Although the reason for the absence of the old images in X is not yet fully understood, there is a chance that they will be restored in the near future.
