Controversially, Elon Musk's X adds a delay when opening links to specific websites

According to The Washington Post, X, formerly known as Twitter, is imposing an unfair restriction to the speed at which it opens links to certain websites, including Facebook, Instagram, New York Times, Reuters, the Times, Bluesky and Substack - all of which have been criticized by Elon Musk in the past. Users are reporting delays of about five seconds before being rerouted to the said website from posted links on X.

Interestingly enough, shortly after the first story was published, the social network has reversed the limitation imposed on some of the websites in question.

The change affected the t.co link-shortening service used by X to track traffic. It also gives X the ability to throttle or block traffic routed through the domain. The issue was first spotted by a user on the Hacker News forum.

We don't know the actual rationale behind the decision to throttle traffic to these specific platforms, but the move suggests they have been targeted in some way.

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