Slowdowns when accessing certain websites from the social networking platform raised some frowns. Especially since the actors involved have bad press with Elon Musk, who is obviously no longer content to give his opinion on everything and anything.
We don’t have to love everyone, and the South African billionaire regularly demonstrates this to us. But the owner of X, late Twitter, is not really like everyone else, and he often tends to go a little (too?) far in his approaches.
Facebook and Instagram, but also… the New York Times ?
There’s nothing more annoying than clicking on a link and having to wait several seconds for something to happen. Yet this is what happened on X.com, according to an analysis conducted by the washington post and confirmed by several media and users. For several days, some links shared on the platform experienced slowdowns, and all concerned specific sites: those of the New York Times, Reuters, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Substack. It’s not just anyone, since if the last four are more or less direct competitors of X, the first two have been the subject of strong criticism from Elon Musk.
According to hacker newsthe process would have started on August 4 against the New York Times, and would have been made possible thanks to the automatic link shortener of the social network. If other sites may have suffered the same fate without anyone noticing, the washington post has not observed such measures against other major platforms and media such as Mastodon (competitor of X), YouTube, FoxNewsor himself.
Freedom of expression according to X.com
The problem has since been resolved by Elon Musk’s company. However, the slowdowns were in effect long enough to be noticed, especially since they weren’t very discreet. Yoel Roth, formerly in charge of security at X, was quick to comment on the case on Bluesky: It’s one of those things that seems way too crazy to be true, even for Twitter, until you find out that Chrome inexplicably takes 5 seconds to receive 650 bytes of data. “. And, these few seconds are far from trivial, since Roth explains that such ” delays are annoying enough, even unconsciously, to drive users away “. One or two seconds could even be enough to reduce traffic to a website, according to some studies.
Threads and other competitors of X have already suffered some inconvenience from the social network, which has simply blocked the links leading to their sites. For Elon Musk, it’s about no longer allowing ” free and incessant advertising for the competition “. Ultimately, why not. But slowing down access to news media, and not just any media, once again raises questions about the South African billionaire’s conception of freedom of expression. He wants to make X a super-platform, like the Chinese giant WeChat, but should he also take inspiration from the censorship that is systematically practiced there?
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X, formerly known as Twitter, is a social media platform that has undergone a major transformation. It is now designed to be a “super app”, offering a range of services far beyond simple messaging.
X, formerly known as Twitter, is a social media platform that has undergone a major transformation. It is now designed to be a “super app”, offering a range of services far beyond simple messaging.
Source : The Verge
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