X reportedly deletes images and links posted before 2014
What's the story
Twitter underwent a series of radical changes while transitioning to X.
The social media platform now appears to have deleted all images posted before 2014.
Links that were shortened using X's native service are also broken.
It's unclear whether this is an error or an intentional clearance. However, it certainly concerns users who have been active on the platform for over a decade.
Details
The news initially went viral on Saturday
On Saturday, an X user named Tom Coates tweeted about the photo/link deletions through a series of posts stating that the data was removed and replaced with a dead link.
The deletion could be an error, and things might be restored at some point. However, whether by accident or intentionally, it's safe to assume that the platform isn't getting any more stable over time.
Twitter Post
Take a look at the post from Coates
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.
— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) August 19, 2023
For example, here’s a search of my media tweets from before 2014. https://t.co/FU6K34oqmA
Scenario
Old images and links are no longer functional
The images and links before 2014 no longer work on X, and it appears that the issue could be due to the platform's new link-shortening domain.
Earlier, when support for native image uploads was introduced, image-hosting services like TwitPic were shut down, making users lose access to images from the early days.
Now, pictures posted directly on the platform appear to be in jeopardy.
Theories
What are the theories suggested by users?
According to a few users on the Reddit forum Datahoarder, X has broken something in an effort to migrate the domain. It's also possible that the redirect from http to https was broken in the process.
Another widely held belief is that X is trying to save money on image hosting fees.
Some users claim that it's a bug rather than an intentional sabotage.