Many top writers weren’t happy when Twitter doubled the number of characters a tweet could contain, from 140 to 280, suggesting that the change destroyed the unique appeal of the social media platform, brevity. So they voiced they displeasure, where else, but on Twitter. JK Rowling wrote, ‘Twitter’s destroyed its USP. The whole point, for me, was how inventive people could be within that concise framework.’ Stephen King replied, ‘What she said.’ And in another tweet said something not suitable for reprinting in Writing Magazine. Meanwhile Neil Gaiman added, ‘What he said she said.’
Matt Haig speculated, ‘At least we know why Twitter went for 280 characters. It was so people could tweet the full list of that day’s A-list stars who have turned out to be sleazebags.’ Award-winning science fiction author John Scalzi dissented, approving the change, ‘Apparently I’ve not been paying attention, but we all have 280 characters now? I’m sure this will make Twitter more tolerable.’