Mastodawn

Sonja M. Lauterbach Jul 2, 2023

This is hilarious. It appears that Twitter is DDOSing itself.

The Twitter home feed's been down for most of this morning. Even though nothing loads, the Twitter website never stops trying and trying.

In the first video, notice the error message that I'm being rate limited. Then notice the jiggling scrollbar on the right.

The second video shows why it's jiggling. Twitter is firing off about 10 requests a second to itself to try and fetch content that never arrives because Elon's latest genius innovation is to block people from being able to read Twitter without logging in.

This likely created some hellish conditions that the engineers never envisioned and so we get this comedy of errors resulting in the most epic of self-owns, the self-DDOS.

Unbelievable. It's amateur hour.

#TwitterDown #MastodonMigration #DDOS #TwitterFail #SelfDDOS

Sheldon Jul 1, 2023

Lest anyone doubt that Twitter was idiotic enough to release code that would cause a race condition and result in its own users executing a DDOS attack on it, here's the network console readout from Firefox showing all the network requests blasting away.

Of course I immediately closed out my connection because I'm a good person.

...but wait! It's the weekend and Evil Sheldon is in control so I kept the party going for a while since Twitter insisted on it.

#TwitterDown #Twitter #MastodonMigration #DDOS #TwitterFail #SelfDDOS

Andres Jalinton Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408
It's kind of sad and really telling of what is going on behind the frontend, overworked engineers trying to meet the demands of an idiotic owner.

Sheldon Jul 1, 2023

@Andres yeah and almost certainly this has something to do with them shutting off anonymous access to Twitter content.

There must have been an insane nest of logic that the devs had to tiptoe through to make the service workable as a private only service.

I presume that the Twitter client didn't anticipate the possibility that Twitter has zero content for it... or maybe someone decided to push to production, pack up, and walk out the door in a blaze of glory.

CosmoStephan Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 @Andres My suspicion is that because they stopped paying their Google server bills, they now are lacking on servers, wanted to limit the amount of traffic and calls, and voila - killed Twitter all by themselves.

Andres Jalinton Jul 1, 2023

@CosmoStephan @sysop408
That is for sure part of it.

LeftInTexas Jul 1, 2023

@CosmoStephan @sysop408 @Andres

I think that could be part of it. But I think the big reason is because they made using the API so expensive that a bunch of people switched over to scraping. The thousands and thousands of bots scraping every single tweet must have caused them some major headaches.

Francis ☑️Jul 2, 2023

@LeftInTexas @CosmoStephan @sysop408 @Andres that seems like the most likely explanation for blocking anonymous access

Mario Jul 2, 2023

@LeftInTexas @CosmoStephan @sysop408 @Andres Then why not restrict single user access to X requests per minute, instead of restricting normal user interactions? My money's on the not paying google theory

Fluffy 🦊Jul 1, 2023

@CosmoStephan @sysop408 @Andres pretty much, considering that their GCloud contract expires today: https://theconversation.com/twitter-is-refusing-to-pay-google-for-cloud-services-heres-why-it-matters-and-what-the-fallout-could-be-for-users-207718

Twitter is refusing to pay Google for cloud services. Here’s why it matters, and what the fallout could be for users

Cloud computing is a way for businesses to access extra computational resources over the internet. Without it, the internet as we know it would malfunction.

The Conversation

Fluffy 🦊Jul 2, 2023

@CosmoStephan @sysop408 @Andres never mind, it's "supposedly" paid: https://mastodon.social/@mmasnick/110641214939021782

msgbi Jul 2, 2023

@fluffyanthro007 @CosmoStephan @sysop408 @Andres @charles_ex

Nia Molinari Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 @Andres

https://toad.social/@NiaMolinari/110640814186705166

Nia Molinari (@[email protected])

Fwiw, if any journalists etc need to find anything on the bird, for some reason because my account is permanently suspended in read only mode, I'm not affected by wtf ever it is that space karen is doing, so I can find it if needed. That's all. #birdsite #twitter #twittermigration

toad.social

Andres Jalinton Jul 1, 2023

@NiaMolinari @sysop408
@NiaMolinari
That is genius.

Nia Molinari Jul 1, 2023

@Andres @sysop408 😂

remocracy Jul 2, 2023

@sysop408 @Andres Could be possible, I bet all the competent staff quit or got fired

JojoTheWolfBoy Jul 3, 2023

@sysop408 @Andres This is why I always put some kind of existence check in my code. Never assume something is there unless you created it to begin with.

ash Jul 1, 2023

@Andres @sysop408 meh, I think if you can work at Twitter you should be able to get another job

Andres Jalinton Jul 1, 2023

@__ash @sysop408
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7z5px/twitter-employees-on-visas-cant-just-quit

Twitter Employees on Visas Can’t Just Quit

Either they choose to buckle up and embrace Twitter’s unsure future, or give up their jobs and leave the United States.

ash Jul 1, 2023

@Andres @sysop408 oh, I hadn't known that, that's horrid and they deserve a lot of love (and employment somewhere else, when it's safe)

@Andres @__ash @sysop408 yes, they're being held at ransom essentially.

Menno Stevens Jul 1, 2023

@maddler @Andres @__ash @sysop408 Modern slavery.
#KetiKoti #slavernijverleden

@mbsnl totally

@Andres @mbsnl @maddler @sysop408 @__ash

As are most ‘foreign worker visa’ programs once you look under the hood.

Mark Jackson-Brown Jul 1, 2023

@Andres @__ash @sysop408 fun fact, Canada is giving them an out:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2023/06/28/us-h1-b-visa-holders-targeted-by-canadas-new-immigration-program/

U.S. H-1B Visa Holders Targeted By Canada’s New Immigration Program

Shortcomings of the U.S. H-1B visa skilled worker program have been highlighted by a newly announced Canadian program that aims to attract H-1B visa holders to Canada.

Forbes

Ursidinoj/The Bjornsdottirs Jul 2, 2023

@markster3000 @Andres @__ash @sysop408 forbes sites isn't exactly credible

Mr. Completely Jul 1, 2023

@__ash @Andres @sysop408 there are some whose visas are held hostage it seems. Otherwise yes

mollydot Jul 1, 2023

@__ash
That depends on your visa

Ysegrim Jul 1, 2023

@__ash @Andres @sysop408 Well... Not any more. I don't think I'd want anyone in my team who is still working at Twitter -who still thinks they're a good fit for Twitter, and vice versa (except they have a reason like those Visa issues).

Blamellors Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 space karen not very good at leadership

Sheldon Jul 1, 2023

@blamellors On the contrary, I think this is the best feature Space Karen's released to date.

ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 @blamellors It’s definitely the most interesting 😂

Sleeplessone Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 @blamellors It's definitely my favorite new feature. I don't have to see Tweet previews on other sites and if I somehow accidentally click or tap on one I can just get taken to a blank page.

The Deep Herd Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 @blamellors

Top 10 Historic Self-Owns of All-Time?

Sheldon Jul 1, 2023

@TheDeepHerd @blamellors I think Elon's goal is own all 10 of them.

Alex Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 i see some angry twitter engineers having revenge on Elmo 🤣

David Gerard Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 this is amazing and beautiful

MParsec Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 Burn Twitter down,and grow some new;)

mark Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 you may have inspired me to log in, scroll that thing like the price is right, and then let it not pull new messages for forever. Lol

Sheldon Jul 1, 2023

@ATLeagle I don't know how widespread it is, but it's still doing it for me. I was able to post that video to Twitter and then do a new recording of the bug still happening while the video of the bug plays in the background. lol. It has been going on for at least three hours.

chevelle67 Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 @ATLeagle I`m still getting notications & can reply...but that`s it...no twitter feed

mark Jul 1, 2023

@chevelle67 @sysop408 I checked it out . My scroll ended on a conversation questioning the rate limit, with a reply of Twitter be hating.

The perfect ending

Sheldon Jul 1, 2023

@ATLeagle @chevelle67 this is the best feature that Elon Twitter has released.

chevelle67 Jul 2, 2023

@sysop408 @ATLeagle ........sorry.. best ? feature 😋

chevelle67 Jul 2, 2023

@ATLeagle @sysop408 she ran out of air...😢 how could a billionaire do that to a well run oiled machine in less than a year....all for a stinkin $$ / month

@sysop408 time to scrape the f**k out of it...

Robin Bobcat Jul 1, 2023

@kkarhan @sysop408 that's exactly what this is supposed to be preventing. He's eliminating anonymous access, and limiting legitimate access, because folks were archiving accounts.

@RobinBobcat @sysop408 yeah, people gonna close their accounts and demanding their customer data as per #GDPR and/or #BDSG will be far more straining to

than any #bot espechally since they lost the capability to automate that and propably need someone to do it manually...

Dieu Jul 1, 2023

@kkarhan @RobinBobcat @sysop408 they just won't comply and by the time it's gone through the courts they'll be gone.

@hllizi @RobinBobcat @sysop408 well, they'll have to comply in a timely manner or risk getting unplugged by regulators and have their assets seized by them.

I hope @verbraucherzentrale will help people getting their data and also poke @BNetzA if #Twitter aims to violate it's legal requirements...

#NotLegalAdvice ofc...

Dieu Jul 1, 2023

@kkarhan @RobinBobcat @sysop408 @verbraucherzentrale @BNetzA And what if the Irish authority just doesn't do anything and nobody is allowed to talk about it?

emmatonkin Jul 1, 2023

@hllizi @kkarhan @RobinBobcat @sysop408
I would certainly laugh if he got done to the tune of 20m euros or 4% of annual revenue from the preceding year.

Robin Bobcat Jul 1, 2023

@emmatonkin @hllizi @kkarhan @sysop408 the guy is already facing eviction from some of his offices over not paying rent. Rent he totally can afford and is able to pay, just... isn't.

@RobinBobcat @emmatonkin @hllizi @sysop408 yeah, and I do hope that since it's his decision, he'll be held personally in contept and gets his assets frozen...

Because that's what most juristictions will allow...

Like seizing Tesla factories in lieu of having his shares seized by judges...

Robin Bobcat Jul 1, 2023

@kkarhan @emmatonkin @hllizi @sysop408 unfortunately, probably not. Liability is limited for such things. Would take some serious lawsuits to tie his personal finances to Twitter's financial burdens.

emmatonkin Jul 1, 2023

@RobinBobcat @kkarhan @hllizi @sysop408
Sadly I think it's more realistic to hope that he does a Howard Hughes and loses it entirely. He's certainly going in that direction for now.

Robin Bobcat Jul 1, 2023

@kkarhan @sysop408 this is the muskrat we're talking about. He will ignore those requests, and the legal consequences therof, just like he's been doing.

Robin Bobcat Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 what an absolute tool. 600 tweets a *day*‽ That's about ten minutes of casial scrolling. And considering that a third of those are going to be ads and promoted tweets, that's even less.

Making it a hard cutoff is the big WTF here. He's effectively banning users - *who have been using the service as intended and generating revenue for him* - for 24 hours. At a time.

If he wants to limit users, then *slow* the flow, don't *stop* it. Then the code won't freak out trying to refresh.

The Actual Brian Jul 1, 2023

@RobinBobcat
@sysop408

I don't use Twitter anymore, except to look in on Musk's latest dumb/racist/bigoted statement and mock him elsewhere, however I just logged into Twitter on a web browser and held firm the spacebar, and I now have a blank Twitter feed.

It took about two minutes.

What a putz.

realcaseyrollins ✝️Jul 1, 2023

@sysop408 Probably a result of this:

https://desu.social/@pixel/110639977326582838

I’d imagine this if you’re a heavy #Twitter user, it can be easy to burn through these limits quick. But as you point out it’s a severe oversight to not limit retries in the client!

Andy (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image · Content warning: musk, twitter

desu.social

@sysop408 It's Elon's version of Rate limiting. As everyone should know that this kind of limiting doesn't have good outcomes when the requester/sender isn't aware how to handle the limitation (limited graceful retries with exponential backoff for example). Here obviously that's not the case.
I really thought Twitter had some professional system design people but I was disappointed again...

And changes like this just done quickly and dirty because Space Karen orders it - never a good outcome.