Did latest X update just delete some old photos, links? Here’s what we know

PHOTO

'X' logo is seen on the top of the headquarters of the messaging platform, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco. — Reuters file

Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, seems to have deleted images and links that were shared on it prior to December 2014. Many users have claimed that they could no longer access their old photos while others said that the missing images were later restored.

What went missing?

Forbes reported that images posted between 2011 and 2014 appeared to have been removed from X while some links also stopped working. The report, however, did not mention the reason behind it.

One of the pictures to vanish from the social media platform was TV star and comedian Ellen DeGeneres’ iconic Oscar selfie, which she posted in March 2014.

The photo, taken at the 86th Academy Awards, had broken the Guinness World Record for the “most retweeted message on Twitter”.

It was seen that while the post and the text — “If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever” — was still there, the photo could not be accessed. The post instead featured the t.co URL, which is X’s link-shortening domain. For those who don’t know, X uses the t.co domain “as part of a service to protect users from harmful activity, to provide value for the developer ecosystem, and as a quality signal for surfacing relevant, interesting Tweets”.

However, it is not clear if all posts from before 2014 were deleted. For instance, US former president Barack Obama’s picture in which he is sharing a hug with his wife Michelle after being re-elected as president in 2012 was not removed. The photo was posted on November 7, 2012.

Fact-check

The apparent glitch, which led to the removal of images, was brought to light by X users including tech writer Tom Coates, who in a post on August 19, said that the platform has deleted all media shared before 2014.

“More vandalism from Elon Musk. Twitter has now removed all media posted before 2014. That's — so far — almost a decade of pictures and videos from the early 2000s removed from the service,” Coates wrote.

Coates also provided a link to his tweets posted before 2014.

Some X users also added context to Coates’ post through the Community Notes feature of the platform.

According to the Community Notes, images posted before or around 2014 on X are still saved on the platform’s servers even when they might not be visible in the tweet. The notes added that the Oscar selfie shared by Ellen DeGeneres was missing from her tweet but its original file was still available on the servers.

According to The Verge, Ellen’s selfie was later restored. However, a reply to the post indicated that not everyone regained access to the photo.