Social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, has delayed access to links to content on Reuters and New York Times sites, as well as rival sites such as Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Clicking on a link on X to one of the affected sites caused a delay of about five seconds in loading the page, The Washington Post reported, citing tests conducted Tuesday. Reuters found similar delays in tests it conducted.
By late Tuesday afternoon, X appeared to have eliminated the delay. When contacted for comment, X confirmed that the delay had been removed, but did not elaborate.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in October, has previously lashed out at news organizations and journalists who have criticized his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. Twitter has previously banned users from posting links to competing social media platforms.
Reuters was unable to determine exactly when X began delaying links to some sites.
Earlier Tuesday, a user on the tech forum Hacker News posted about the delay, writing that X was delaying its link to The New York Times starting Aug. 4. On the same day, Musk criticized the publication for its coverage of South Africa and accused it of supporting calls for genocide. Reuters had no evidence that the two incidents were linked.
A New York Times spokesperson said it had not received an explanation from X for the link delay.
“While we are not aware of the reasons for this delay, we are concerned that any news organization will experience targeted pressure for unknown reasons,” the spokesperson said on Tuesday.
A Reuters spokesman said: “We are aware of a Washington Post report about a delay in opening links to Reuters stories on X’s website. We are investigating the matter.”
Bluesky, an X competitor whose board of directors includes Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, did not respond to a request for comment.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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