Reports have begun to surface that the domain shortener used by X, t.co, is seemingly adding a five second delay to certain domains when they are shortened on the platform. There is one particular theme connecting the websites, however, and that is they are sites that Elon Musk has attacked on the platform in the past.
t.co is the URL shortener that X, the site formerly known as Twitter, uses whenever a link is posted on the platform, it also allows X to track and also throttle activity that is going to any website that is linked using said shortener. The key benefit to this action for Elon is, if users click away as it's taking too long to load, it will reduce traffic and therefore revenue.
So far, the sites that have been identified include Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and The New York Times, and the first reports were initially reported on 4th August and have been monitored up to this point, with the original post on Hacker News reporting that "the delay is so consistent it's obviously deliberate."
The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
This isn't the first time that X has taken action against websites that Musk isn't particularly fond of, initially stating that accounts would be suspended if they posted links to those websites late last year, and then last month rate limiting users to limit the number of posts they can view to avoid bot scraping.
X, nor Musk, have commented on the recent findings and reports, and it isn't known if this move will remain permanent. Reports from The Washington Post found that the majority of other websites remained unaffected, however, it did contact the affected websites who are "reviewing the matter."
Source: Hacker News via The Washington Post
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