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Twitter suffered an embarrassing technology failure today that temporarily broke links to external websites and even Twitter’s own webpages. The problem lasted for about 45 minutes or so.
In our tests, clicking on any link led to this error message:
{“errors”:[{“message”:”Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint, please see https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api for more information”,”code”:467}]}
Clicking on the developer link didn’t clear anything while the problem was still happening because it brought up the same API error message. In addition to news articles and other outbound links, the error message appeared when we tried to click on Twitter’s terms of service, privacy policy, cookie policy, and other similar pages. . Some images embedded in tweets were broken, and there were reports that TweetDeck was also broken.
We also get the error message when loading any Twitter page in the browser’s incognito mode. It is still possible to view tweets in the browser tab where we are already logged into Twitter, and the link problem is a trending topic of discussion.
The official Twitter support account acknowledged the problem before it was fixed. “Some features of Twitter may not work as expected right now,” Twitter WRITES. “We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on it now and will share an update when it’s fixed.”
Musk: Code is “brittle for no good reason”
“This platform is brittle (sigh). Well soon,” CEO Elon Musk WRITES. she added later that a “small change in the API will have big consequences. The code stack is too brittle for no good reason. It will eventually require a complete rewrite.”
The “current API plan” part of the error message has led to widespread speculation that the problem is related to Twitter’s decision to charge for API access. “Did Twitter forget to subscribe to their own API?” a user ASK. “Twitter’s own products are broken because the free API ends,” Information tech reporter Paris Martineau WRITES.
We will update this article when we get specific details on what caused the link to fail. The Twitter links seem to be working fine now and the Twitter support account confirmed the problem is fixed.
After buying Twitter in October 2022, Musk cut costs by laying off half of Twitter’s staff and terminating thousands of contractors, A Washington Post report in mid-November cited a former employee who said layoffs and other departures “leave many critical systems with up to two. , one or even zero engineers.”