Twitter suffered some technical problems this week while changes were being made. Reuters
Twitter suffered some technical problems this week while changes were being made. Reuters
Twitter suffered some technical problems this week while changes were being made. Reuters
Twitter suffered some technical problems this week while changes were being made. Reuters

Twitter introduces 4,000 character-long tweets for Blue subscribers


Ian Oxborrow
  • English
  • Arabic

Twitter has introduced longer tweets for subscribers to its Blue service.

However, the social media platform was hit by glitches around the world at a similar time that the longer tweets were launched.

Tweets were previously limited to 280 characters. The higher threshold will initially be available only in the US.

Twitter Blue tweeted: “Need more than 280 characters to express yourself? We know that lots of you do … and while we love a good thread, sometimes you just want to Tweet everything all at once. We get that. So, we're introducing longer Tweets!

“Most standard functions of tweeting still apply, whether you want to post a picture, use a hashtag, or create a poll. But now you can type all the way up to 4,000 characters. For now, longer tweets on web can't be saved as drafts or scheduled to send later. But don’t worry, Twitter is still Twitter.”

The new longer tweets will be capped at 280 characters on a user's timeline to avoid significant scrolling, with a “show more” prompt to click and read the whole tweet.

Twitter said that while only Blue subscribers can post longer tweets, anyone can read them.

“You can reply to, retweet, and quote tweet a longer tweet, no matter if you’re a Twitter Blue subscriber or not,” it said. “Subscribers will be able to reply and QT with up to 4,000 characters.”

The Twitter Blue subscription adds a blue check mark to an account and offers other early access to features such as edit tweet, longer video, NFT profile pictures and custom app icons.

The initial launch of Twitter Blue led to turmoil as a wave of fake accounts with the new blue ticks parodied US presidents, well-known dead people and large companies.

The blue check mark was previously reserved for the verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures.

Newly created Twitter accounts are not able to subscribe to Twitter Blue for 90 days.

The subscription service was launched by new owner Elon Musk following his $44 billion acquisition in October to raise new revenue.

He said the company was losing $4 million a day. However, earlier this week, he tweeted that the company was now in a stronger financial position.

“Last 3 months were extremely tough, as had to save Twitter from bankruptcy, while fulfilling essential Tesla & SpaceX duties,” he said.

“Wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone. Twitter still has challenges, but is now trending to break even if we keep at it. Public support is much appreciated!

“To be extra clear, Twitter is definitely not financially healthy yet, but is trending to be so. Lots of work still needed to get there.”

Twitter Blue has now been expanded to 12 regions, including Saudi Arabia.

Twitter also recently outlined plans to start charging for its API access, although on Thursday it confirmed that it would extend free access through February 13.

It said a “new form of free access will be introduced as this is extremely important to our ecosystem, limited to Tweet creation of up to 1,500 tweets per month for a single authenticated user token, including Login with Twitter”.

Meanwhile, the company admitted on Wednesday that its platform “may not be working as expected for some of you”.

“Sorry for the trouble. We're aware and working to get this fixed.”

A daily limit of 2,400 tweets a day was put in place at Twitter to reduce strain on its operations, according to US media.

People also reported that TweetDeck, the popular dashboard for managing and viewing Twitter accounts, had stopped working.

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Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Three ways to boost your credit score

Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:

1. Make sure you make your payments on time;

2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;

3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.

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Artist: Linkin Park

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Tips for avoiding trouble online
  • Do not post incorrect information and beware of fake news
  • Do not publish or repost racist or hate speech, yours or anyone else’s
  • Do not incite violence and be careful how to phrase what you want to say
  • Do not defame anyone. Have a difference of opinion with someone? Don’t attack them on social media
  • Do not forget your children and monitor their online activities
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)

Date started: August 2021

Founder: Nour Sabri

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace

Size: Two employees

Funding stage: Seed investment

Initial investment: $200,000

Investors: Amr Manaa (director, PwC Middle East) 

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Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en

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Who are the Sacklers?

The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.

Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. 

It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.

Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".

The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.

Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.

Updated: February 09, 2023, 10:09 AM`