If you’ve noticed fewer news stories while scrolling through X, there may be a simple reason: the platform is actively limiting its visibility on your feed. Elon Musk appeared to confirm this on November 24 when he replied to a user on X – the site formerly known as Twitter – who claimed that the platform throttled posts containing links. This would likely result in fewer articles from actual news sources appearing in your feed.Paul Graham, a well-known figure with around 2 million followers, argued that “deprioritizing tweets with links is Twitter’s biggest flaw,” explaining that “what draws me to Twitter is finding out what’s going on, and you can’t do that without links.”
Musk’s response seemed to acknowledge Graham’s concern, implying that posts with links are indeed deprioritized.In the response, Musk wrote, “Just write a description in the main post and put the link in the reply. This just stops lazy linking.”
His response echoed previous suggestions that posting content directly on X – such as videos, podcasts, and articles – generates better traffic and engagement than sharing links to third-party websites.
However, the user remained unconvinced by this reasoning and questioned why including a link and its description in a single post was considered “lazy.”Since the U.S. presidential election that saw Donald Trump’s victory, many users have left X, with a significant number migrating to the rival platform Bluesky. Despite this, numerous official accounts, celebrities, and high-profile users continue to engage on X due to its larger user base.
The deprioritization of tweets with links in them is Twitter's biggest flaw. It bothers me more than all the new right-wing trolls. Trolls I'm used to, but what draws me to Twitter is to find out what's going on, and you can't do that without links.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) November 24, 2024