Social Media Platform (X) Faces Controversy for Delaying Access to News Links, Including Reuters and The New York Times
A report published by The Washington Post late on Tuesday revealed that the social media platform (X), formerly known as Twitter, delayed access to links for content on websites like Reuters, The New York Times, as well as competing platforms such as Bloomberg, Facebook, and Instagram.
Based on tests conducted on Tuesday, The Washington Post noted that clicking on a link within (X) to one of the affected websites resulted in a delay of about five seconds before the web page loaded.
Similarly, Reuters news agency confirmed a similar delay in tests they conducted.
By late Tuesday, it appeared that (X) had removed the delay, when Reuters reached out to the company for comment, (X) confirmed that the delay had been removed, but did not delve into specifics.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter in late October last year for $44 billion, has previously criticized news organizations and journalists who criticized his companies, including electric car manufacturer Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX, Twitter had previously prevented users from posting links to competing social media platforms.
The exact timing of when (X) began delaying links to certain websites is not known.
A user on Hacker News, a tech-focused platform, earlier in the day on Tuesday reported the delay and stated that (X) had started delaying links to The New York Times on August 4th.
On that day, Musk criticized the newspaper’s coverage of South Africa and accused it of supporting calls for genocide.
A spokesperson for The New York Times stated that they had not received any explanation from (X) regarding the link delay.
The spokesperson said on Tuesday, “While we do not know the rationale behind implementing this time delay, we are concerned about the targeted pressure being applied to any news organization for unclear reasons.”
A Reuters spokesperson said, “We are aware of the report published by The Washington Post about the delay in opening Reuters news links on the (X) platform, we are looking into the matter.”
