Twitter isn’t dead yet, it’s just randomly logging out some of its users. After reporting earlier today that Twitter was experiencing a bug that allowed people to edit their bios to briefly regain their verified checkmarks, the Twitter website started randomly logging users out this afternoon. There are a number of complaints about the issue on Twitter itself, indicating that at least some may be able to regain access after booting from the site.
The issue seems to currently be affecting desktop users who use Twitter over the web. Some claim that they are logged out repeatedly.
We found that the problem occurs when browsing the Twitter website. The page refreshes and then Twitter users (including several of us here at AapkaDost) are taken to the default website for logged out users. This page shows a curated selection of tweets and options to log in via Google or Apple or create a new account. Many people (tweeting on their phones, we suppose) say they’re unable to get back to the site via any of the usual methods.
We’re facing that problem too, now that we’ve come to the screen where we can enter the code from a code generator app. But after entering the code, the page will only refresh and we will be returned to the same logged out page again.
The Downdetector website also shows a surge in user complaints about the site, indicating that the problem is quite widespread.
Twitter has yet to acknowledge the issue through its official Twitter or Twitter Support accounts.
The bug is yet another example of the growing set of problems that followed Elon Musk’s takeover of the social network and the significant layoffs of technical staff that the transition brought. Since then, Twitter has experienced a series of issues, including glitches with Twitter Circle showing private tweets to the public, broken timelines, broken links and images, failed error messages, and multiple outages. At the same time, the company introduces itself to advertisers and creators, suggesting that it will become a super app that also offers payments in the future.
Over the weekend, Musk even touted how media publishers — a group he recently alienated by calling outlets like NPR and PBS “government-funded” — could offer micropayments for individual articles via Twitter. A similar concept is now being trialled by Twitter rival Post.
However, it’s not clear that any of Twitter’s big plans will ever gain traction.
After all, it’s hard to sell much of anything on a website that users don’t have access to.