Ellen DeGeneres' viral Oscar selfie temporarily removed from Elon Musk's X; here's why

Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, faced a massive glitch recently where it erased photos posted on the platform between 2011 to 2014, reported The Verge. This included the Twitter’s one of the most viral photos: Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie that included Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and many other Hollywood stars. The post had over 2.8 million reshares and 2 million likes since being posted in March 2014.Notably, the picture is visible on the platform now.

One of the first users to point out this issue was Tom Coates, who wrote that he was unable to see images from 2014 on Saturday afternoon. He stated, “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.”

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At the time of writing this story, we noticed inconsistencies while going through images posted before 2014 as all we could see was a URL instead of the images in a few tweets. This also includes tweets by Elon Musk himself. Here are the screenshots of the same:

Neither X CEO Linda Yaccarino nor X Chairman Elon Musk has revealed the reason behind this glitch or even acknowledged the issue as of now.

This has created a panic among the users on the platform. One user wrote, “Why remove our ability to see our posts, memories, and literal historical events from twitter??????? With no warning at all!”, while another wrote, “That ceo is literally erasing history (sic).” criticising Musk for the issue.

Why remove our ability to see our posts, memories, and literal historical events from twitter??????? With no warning at all! #TwitterDeletesPhotos

— ♥️ (@LoveRunandPray) August 19, 2023

That ceo is literally erasing history. #TwitterDeletesPhotos https://t.co/tvNrUucknq

— crimsonrambler (@crimsonrambler) August 20, 2023

Recently, Musk also tweeted that X will no longer have a “block” option as it “does not make sense”. Musk tweeted this while responding to a question from the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley. He said it does not make sense to block people on the app.

Notably, the blocking feature ensures that blocked accounts can't see your posts. The blocked account also can't direct-message (DM) you. Removal of the feature could lead to unwanted interactions, increased harassment, spam, privacy concerns, and a loss of control for users.

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