Elon Musk's X is throttling traffic to news and websites he dislikes

[highplainsdem]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/08/15/twitter-x-links-delayed/
Archive: https://archive.ph/1CaFc

The company formerly known as Twitter has begun slowing the speed with which users can access links to the New York Times, Facebook and other news organizations and online competitors, a move that appears targeted at companies that have drawn the ire of owner Elon Musk.

Users who clicked a link on Musk’s website, now called X, for one of the targeted websites were made to wait about five seconds before seeing the page, according to tests conducted Tuesday by The Washington Post.

The delayed websites included X’s online rivals Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Substack, as well as the Reuters wire service and the Times. All of them have previously been singled out by Musk for ridicule or attack.

The delay affects the t.co domain, a link-shortening service that X uses to process every link posted to the website. Traffic is routed through the domain, allowing X to track — and, in this case, throttle — activity to the target website, potentially taking away traffic and ad revenue from businesses Musk personally dislikes.

-snip-

Those connections usually take a second or less.

According to the article, the delay in connecting to NYT articles began on 8/4, when Musk posted a rant about it, and the Times has noticed a drop in traffic coming from X.

[Johnny2X2X]

1. He does this to Biden too

I started noting Biden's tweets were getting a very small amount of likes and ReTweets.

Musk intends to use Twitter to support Trump next year and hurt Biden.

[Qutzupalotl]

2. Because free speech or something.

[KPN]

3. Yes, and power is speech according to Robert's court.

Well, essentially.

[Savaspas]

4. Is this legal?

It’s shady in the least.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Why wouldn't it be?

[C_U_L8R]

5. It's essentially a useless app

unless you like to go tease magats, knuckledraggers and rightwing trolls

[2naSalit]

7. Anti-American asshole.

When can we be rid of his influence?

[tanyev]

8. Petulant child.

I’d love to see every legit company, charity and government agency abandon the platform.

[Recycle_Guru]

9. just get rid if your twitter x account--no need to support Musk's garbage

[keep_left]

10. Hasn't he already been doing a lot of this? It sounds like the "throttling" might...

...be new, but I'm pretty sure it was shown right here at DU that Musk was "boosting" a lot of alt-right garbage accounts that he likes. Many of those accounts were ones that had been deplatformed under the previous ownership. It was also reported here that the new blue-check system allows Musk to demote any accounts he doesn't agree with.

Then there's his use of the "Frenworld" meme, a Nazi frog character used by a banned Reddit group. His post flirts with civil war.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=18129069

[Goodheart]

11. He's too fucking stupid to understand that throttling links to other sites makes his own site seem

sluggish, and diminishes any desire to use it,

Just exactly how did this moron become so rich?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. It's already been reversed, once the article ran.