Skip to main content

Two Twitter users find a way to post a 35,000-character tweet

Think Twitter’s recently tested 280-character limit is too long? Over the weekend, two German users found a loophole and posted a 35,000-character tweet by formatting part of the post as a URL.

User Timrasett, along with HackneyYT, both self-proclaimed Twitter bug finders, posted the extra-long tweet on November 4. The tweet was in German, but roughly translates into this: “People! @Timrasett and @HackneyRT can exceed the character limit! You do not believe us? Here’s about 35K characters proof.” The tweet was then followed by a long string of characters formatted as a 27,024 character domain name followed by a 3,244 character directory name with a “.cc/“ in between, as another Twitter user pointed out. It’s unclear how the users worked around Twitter’s automatic link shortening tool.

Recommended Videos

Twitter temporarily suspended both users’ accounts and deleted the post, which on a platform designed for 140 characters, created some Twitter feed havoc. While the post is no longer on Twitter, the original still lives on the Internet Archive for users who want to actually see what’s probably the longest tweet yet.

Last year, Twitter began allowing users to post slightly longer tweets by no longer counting photos, videos, GIFs, polls, or quoted tweets as part of  that 140-character limit. Then, earlier this year, Twitter began excluding usernames from that limit as well. While the changes still leave the limit at 140 characters of text, excluding usernames and photo links allowed users a bit more freedom in composing tweets — or in the case of the 35,000-character tweet, a lot more freedom.

Character length has long been a defining feature of Twitter, but it’s also one that’s come under debate several times. Twitter is currently testing a 280 character limit with some users, while in the past the platform has even considered 10,000-character tweets.

While users in favor of higher character counts want more space to have their say, many others oppose the idea — after all, short jokes are often the best ones. And since Twitter is designed for short posts, there’s no “continue reading” feature to collapse longer posts as there is on Facebook, so when users work around that limit by tagging a hundred Twitter users or posting 35,000-character links, users have to do a whole lot of scrolling to get past that single tweet.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
How to deactivate your Instagram account (or delete it)
A person holding a phone with the Instagram app open on it.

Oh, social media. Sometimes it’s just too much, folks.

If you’re finding yourself in a position where shutting down your Instagram account for a period of time sounds good, the people at Meta have made it pretty simple to deactivate it. It’s also quite easy to completely delete your Instagram, although we wouldn’t recommend this latter option if you plan on returning to the platform at a later date.

Read more
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Incogni: Recover your privacy and remove personal information from the internet
Incogni remove your personal data from brokers and more

Everything you do while online is tracked digitally. Often connected to your email address or an issued IP, trackers can easily identify financial details, sensitive information like your social security number, demographics, contact details, like a phone number or address, and much more. In many ways, this information is tied to a digital profile and then collated, recorded, and shared via data brokers. There are many ways this information can be scooped up and just as many ways, this information can be shared and connected back to you and your family. The unfortunate reality is that, for most of us, we no longer have any true privacy.

The problem is exacerbated even more if you regularly use social media, share content or images online, or engage in discussions on places like Reddit or community boards. It's also scary to think about because even though we know this information is being collected, we don't necessarily know how much is available, who has it, or even what that digital profile looks like.

Read more