Elon Musk hints that X throttles posts with links
If you feel like you're not seeing many news stories while scrolling X, there might be a simple explanation: The site actively keeps them off your feed.
Elon Musk seemingly suggested that on Nov. 24, when he replied to another user on his social platform X — the website formerly known as Twitter — who claimed the site throttled the performance of posts with links. This would mean you'd likely see fewer articles from actual news sites.
Paul Graham, a popular poster with some 2 million followers, posted that "deprioritization of tweets with links in them is Twitter's biggest flaw" because "what draws me to Twitter is to find out what's going on, and you can't do that without links."
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Musk responded, seemingly confirming Graham's point that posts with links get deprioritized.
Wrote Musk in response: "Just write a description in the main post and put the link in the reply. This just stops lazy linking."
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The suggestion from Musk seems like quite the strange way to share info. If you're sharing news, it would make sense — in a vacuum — to provide the link that gives more context. But such a link, of course, takes people off Musk's platform. Basically, he wants you to summarize the news — or anything else that requires a link — while hiding the full context in the replies.
Musk also retweeted a post that suggested posting everything directly to X because sharing links will affect your post's reach. That's another seeming admission that X is throttling posts with links.
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Musk's X deprioritizing links wouldn't be all that surprising. The Washington Post reported last year, for instance, that X slowed links to competitors Musk disliked, such as the New York Times and Facebook.
X, meanwhile, might have a real competitor in Bluesky, which has seen its users skyrocket in the wake of the election and Musk's diehard support for President-elect Donald Trump. Users have reported seeing increased, and better, engagement on Bluesky — and throttling links seemingly wouldn't help X's case.
Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
