Twitter is now slowing down traffic on links to the crowdfunding site Patreon, WhatsApp, and at times, Meta’s Messenger app, a Markup analysis confirms, The Markup reported.
Using a tool launched by The Markup last month, readers discovered that links to these sites were delayed by an average of 2.5 seconds – findings The Markup confirmed. Patreon users told The Markup that the throttling undermines their ability to reach new supporters on Twitter, which has historically been a key platform for building donations.
In September, The Markup reported that Twitter, now officially named X, was slowing down links to Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and Substack, also by an average of 2.5 seconds, which can feel extremely slow for users.
The Markup simultaneously launched a tool that lets readers test any link posted on X (which the platform automatically shortens using the t.co domain), and measured the time it took for X to redirect the link to its original destination. The Markup also built a bot that would let them know if any links readers were testing appeared to be throttled.
Shortly after publication, readers began using The Markup’s tool, and The Markup received alerts that Patreon, WhatsApp, and Messenger links appeared to be throttled. To confirm these findings, The Markup created new links and measured over several days the performance of redirects to the 25 top-earning Patreon campaigns, as measured by tracking site Graphtreon on September 30.
According to The Markup, Laurent Crenshaw, Patreon’s senior director of policy and external affairs, said in an emailed statement, “Creators are locked into social platforms that take away their creativity, and their ability to build a business. When a fan decides to follow a creator, they should be able to see 100% of their posts, 100% of the time.”
SocialMediaToday reported that earlier this year, reports indicated that X was throttling links to rival social media and publishing platforms, including Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Substack. Further investigations found that X was also delaying load times to The New York Times, Reuters, and various other media that had been singled out for criticism by Elon in his posts.
Which, given Musk’s clear distain for the “mainstream media” is a list that grows almost daily, so if X is really looking to punish links to sites that Elon doesn’t like, Andrew Hutchinson (Content creator and Social Media Manager) suspects there won’t be many websites that aren’t copping a load time penalty sometime soon as a result.
According to SocialMediaToday, X has neither confirmed or denied that its been limiting the flow of traffic to external sites, though there are notes within X’s open-sourced code which indicate that links to rival social apps, even if they’re just named in a post, will result in “de-boosting.”
Musk is not known for playing well with others, or offering what he sees as free promotion via his platforms, according to SocialMediaToday.
In my opinion, Elon Musk appears to be desperately trying to make X so inhospitable that droves of people will leave it for social media platforms that don’t throttle users. Reportedly, Mr. Musk wants to make X into an “everything app”, but he can’t do that if he’s restricting links to the sites that creators use.