Elon Musk Twitter page seen on mobile with his poll to step down as head of Twitter
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Many Twitter users on Wednesday afternoon were unable to post on the site for about 90 minutes, receiving a message that read, “You are over the daily limit for sending Tweets.”
Tweets also couldn’t be posted from mobile phones. A message pops up saying, “Tweet not sent” followed by, “We’re sorry we weren’t able to send your tweet. Would you like to retry or save this tweet in drafts?” Users also weren’t able to send or load direct messages.
The service was mostly back up by a few minutes after 6 p.m. Eastern time, although direct messages were still not largely available. The internet-tracking service Downdetector showed that the number of users submitting Twitter problem reports skyrocketed starting around 4:30 p.m.
While the site was down, users were able to tweet by scheduling their posts using the calendar icon at the bottom of the message box.
Twitter hasn’t announced any update to its daily limits. It’s not clear if the change on Wednesday was intentional or if it’s a temporary glitch. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Twitter’s website, the company limits the number of tweets that people can send to 2,400 per day. The daily limit for direct messages is 500.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has fired roughly 80% of the company’s workforce since he acquired the company in late October. According to internal records viewed by CNBC, Twitter now has roughly 1,300 active working employees, which includes fewer than 550 full-time engineers by title.
The company also recently shut down a data center in Sacramento, California, as a way to cut costs, The New York Times reported in late December.
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