Twitter glitches due to 'extremely brittle' code, says Elon Musk

Twitter users were met with more technical issues on Monday afternoon as they were unable to load images and received an error message after clicking on links to third-party websites within tweets.

“Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint,” the message read.

Early Monday afternoon, the Twitter support team tweeted that it “made an internal change that had some unintended consequences.” 

Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 6, 2023

Not long after the issue was resolved, CEO Elon Musk chimed in, stating that the error was the result of a change made to the platform’s application programming interface (API), a form of software that allows computer programs to communicate with each other. He added that Twitter’s code is “extremely brittle for no reason” and needs to be completely rewritten. 

A small API change had massive ramifications. The code stack is extremely brittle for no good reason. Will ultimately need a complete rewrite.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2023

Brands such as Dictionary.com and Steak-umm poked fun at the website’s instability. 

There are certain advantages to our dictionary not containing pictures.

— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) March 6, 2023

Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 6, 2023

In February, Musk tweeted that the platform’s free API was being “badly abused by bot scammers,” resulting in Twitter announcing that it would begin charging developers a $100 monthly fee to access the software.

Twitter experienced four widespread outages in February compared to nine throughout all of 2022, according to internet outage tracker NetBlocks.

Some users blamed the plethora of technical issues on layoffs that have repeatedly struck the company since Musk acquired it in October. Twitter most recently laid off over 200 employees on February 25, which was about 10% of its remaining workforce. 

Was it firing everyone https://t.co/QmduDut5O0

— Silvia Killingsworth (@silviakillings) March 6, 2023