X, formerly known as Twitter, is throttling traffic to websites that the social network’s owner Elon Musk publicly dislikes.
The platform is slowing down the speed it takes when accessing links to a handful of websites including The New York Times, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, Reuters and Substack.
Delays, even small ones, can affect a website’s traffic as users can grow impatient when content doesn’t load within a second or two.
Twitter’s former head of trust and safety posted on Bluesky that the delays appeared to be “one of those things that seems too crazy to be true, even for Twitter, until you see it inexplicably take 5 seconds for Chrome to receive 650 bytes of data.” He went on to note that “UX research on web performance suggests that even a 1 second delay is enough for people to start to context switch, which increases bounce rates and decreases time spent on the linked site.
This isn’t the first time that Musk has let his personal grievances affect the social network, as he previously blocked links to Substack, Threads and other competitors.
Earlier this year, Musk called the New York Times “propaganda” and took away the news organization’s verification checkmark.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
X, formerly known as Twitter, is throttling traffic to websites that the social network’s owner Elon Musk publicly dislikes.
The platform is slowing down the speed it takes when accessing links to a handful of websites including The New York Times, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, Reuters and Substack.
Delays, even small ones, can affect a website’s traffic as users can grow impatient when content doesn’t load within a second or two.
Twitter’s former head of trust and safety posted on Bluesky that the delays appeared to be “one of those things that seems too crazy to be true, even for Twitter, until you see it inexplicably take 5 seconds for Chrome to receive 650 bytes of data.” He went on to note that “UX research on web performance suggests that even a 1 second delay is enough for people to start to context switch, which increases bounce rates and decreases time spent on the linked site.
This isn’t the first time that Musk has let his personal grievances affect the social network, as he previously blocked links to Substack, Threads and other competitors.
Earlier this year, Musk called the New York Times “propaganda” and took away the news organization’s verification checkmark.
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