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Update (9:30PM CET):The service is now returning to normal. Our original report follows. Twitter has gone down today for many users, who are reporting issues logging into the service’s website. The Downdetector website said it’s been receiving reports of problems since 11:49AM EDT. Users havereported seeing error messagessuggesting that they refresh the page, but the recommendation seems to have had little effect. Calling all Scaleup founders! Join the Soonicorn Summit on November 28 in Amsterdam....

Accordingto Fortune, Twitter has completed both tranches of its simply enormous$800 million round of financing. The investment was abnormal, as only half of the money was directly put into Twitter (by DST), with the remaining $400 million set aside to cash out extant shareholders. Fortune’s sources state that now the second section of the deal is complete. Several high-profile investors took the opportunity to cash out part of their holdings of Twitter stock, including Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures....

We’ve followed Twitter’s plans to expand its staff into Europe for some time. Back in November the companytold usthat it planned to have “A small number of people on the ground in 2011”. Now it’s starting to make those hires. AsTechCrunch Europereports today, Twitter is hiring in the UK. However, the company’s starting small, with just Account Executives and Account Managers. These are both sales roles that appear aimed at improving Twitter’s links with British brands and the European advertising industry, which is centred around London....

A Twitter algorithm that favored light-skinned faces has now been shown to perpetuate a range of further biases. The algorithm estimated whom a person would want to see first in a picture so the image could be cropped to a suitable size on Twitter. But it was ditched after users found it chose white faces over Black ones. Trying a horrible experiment… Which will the Twitter algorithm pick: Mitch McConnell or Barack Obama?...

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s Co-founder and CEO of easy payment companySquare, is reportedly investing in a “new kind” of marketing firm lead by ex-Apple marketing exec Allison Johnson, reportsAll Things D. The goal of this new marketing firm is supposedly to bridge the communication gap that exists between larger companies and brands in order to interact more effectively with smaller tech companies and booming social networks. Though the amount of funding going into the firm has gone unannounced, the actual proposal has been in the works for several months now....