Musk retracts slowed access to news outlets, but delay not removed for social media rivals

According to a recent report, social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has retracted from its previous move of slowing down access to a few of the top news outlets. However, the delays in accessing links to othersocial media competing platforms like Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram continue to remain. This alleged deliberate delay, which lasted approximately five seconds upon clicking a link on X, was observed during tests conducted by The Washington Post and Reuters. However, as of late Tuesday, X seemed to have eliminated this delay. Despite confirmation of the removal, there was no commentby X.

Previous conflicts

Billionaire Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in October, has previously engaged in public disputes with news organisations and journalists who have critiqued his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. Moreover, X has previously prevented users from sharing links to rival social media platforms.

At the time he cited that there will be no free advertising for these competing platforms and that it is a violation of X policies. As per reports, Musk said that cross-posting is accepted but what is not acceptable is X platform being used in order to promote one's content.

Delay in accessing links

While the exact events which led to the delay in accessing links remain unclear, a user on Hacker News, a technology-focused forum, reportedly said that X began imposing delays on links to the New York Times on August 4.

On that same day, Musk publicly criticised the New York Times for its coverage of South Africa and accused it of promoting genocide. However, it is worth noting that there is no proven connection between these two events and no certain conclusion can be drawn.

Concerns and reactions

Before the delay in accessing the links was reversed, representatives from The New York Times expressed concerns over the incident. "While we don't know the rationale behind the application of this time delay, we would be concerned by targeted pressure applied to any news organisation for unclear reasons," the spokesperson said on Tuesday.

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A Reuters spokesperson said: "We are aware of the report in the Washington Post of a delay in opening links to Reuters stories on X. We are looking into the matter."Bluesky, a competitor of X, and Meta reportedly did not respond to requests for comments on the issue.

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