What’s up with Twitter’s disappearing tweets?

A number of Twitter users on Wednesday complained about tweets being blocked or disappearing from their timelines.

The issues appeared to begin right around the same time that Twitter experienced a surge in tweet activity related to the death of Breonna Taylor, leading to some speculation that Twitter was censoring tweets around a grand jury’s announcement this afternoon.

Twitter acknowledged the technical issues but denied they were related to any specific topic. Reached for comment, a spokesperson referred Fast Company to the following tweets:

We’re also seeing a number of accounts incorrectly locked or limited. We’re working to undo this and get your accounts back to normal as soon as possible. This is not related to Tweets about any particular topic. https://t.co/w8t2Wv2fJN

— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) September 23, 2020

Earlier today, a grand jury indicted Brett Hankison, a former Louisville, Kentucky, police detective, on three felony counts of “wanton endangerment in the first degree,” a decision that immediately drew criticism. Neither Hankison nor the other officers involved were charged with actually causing Taylor’s death.