Will 280-character tweet limit start a nuclear war? Twitter reacts

It's finally happening. Twitter is rolling out an update to enable users to send 280-character tweets, doubling the existing 140-character limit. Only a select few have so far got the opportunity to experiment with the update.

Arguably the most significant change Twitter has made to its platform since its launch in 2006, the switch has been described by CEO Jack Dorsey as “a small change, but a big move”.

“This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160-character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence!” said chief executive Jack, announcing the update on September 26.

The company claims it reached the decision after its research findings revealed the character count limitation impacted those tweeting in some languages, such as English, Spanish, Portuguese or French more than others like Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

"Our research shows us that the character limit is a major cause of frustration for people tweeting in English, but it is not for those tweeting in Japanese... When people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare we see more people tweeting – which is awesome," explained Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen in a blog post.

However, that's not to say everybody's on board with Twitter's latest move. The decision has left Twitterverse polarised, with many arguing that this update will only worsen the whole experience the site made famous:

Others decided to point out how the social media giant has ignored the real problems facing it and rolled out a feature that is, at best, pointless and, worse, will accentuate the issues being faced by users of the plaftform across the globe. 

Believe it or not, users also took to Twitter to explain how the 280-character limit is an elaborate ploy to start a nuclear war at the hands of POTUS, Donald Trump. 

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