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Elon Musk’s X is throttling traffic to news and websites he dislikes
- minimaxir 3y agoUpdate as of just now: it appears the links are no longer being throttled. Tested with multiple clients/browsers.
- lapcat 3y agoI'm no longer seeing it with NYT but still seeing it with Threads: curl -v -A 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/16.6 Safari/605.1.15' https://t.co/DzIiCFp7Ti Also still seeing it with Substack: curl -v -A 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/16.6 Safari/605.1.15' https://t.co/6ziYzHwGB0 (Note that I just quickly grabbed a random substack.com link from Twitter search. I don't endorse and indeed haven't read the contents.)
- minimaxir 3y agoI am seeing similar results on the web. This just raises further questions!
- username332211 3y agoReading your post makes me think of the fraud accusations against the Wall Street Journal made by YouTube content creators a few years back. [1] I doubt any website is blacklisted at all. Web-scale systems behave in weird and unexpected ways. That's it. [1] For those who missed that silly 'scandal': The content creators that earned their living from making videos on YouTube were somehow unaware that the view counts displayed by that website were not strictly consistent. Because of that they ended up accusing a Wall Street Journal reporter (who was writing a story that happened to threaten their income) of falsifying some screenshots and videos.
- archo 3y ago-- Related -- X has started reversing the throttling on some of the sites, including NYTimes Discussions on HN: (61-comments - 2023-08-16) : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37141478 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37141478 Twitter post archive: https://archive.is/PW3eG https://archive.is/PW3eG
- xony 3y ago[dead]
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 3y agoThird party intermediaries, a.k.a. so-called "tech" companies, are a PITA. This proxying of URLs, i.e., redirecting through the intermediary's servers, is sadly commonplace, providing the intermediary with a wealth of data on what external links are followed by computer users leaving the so-called "tech" company websites. Facebook does it. Google does it with Google News. IIRC, Facebook has defended the practice as being some sort of safety measure for Facebook users. If true, that's great, but are there any legally-enforceable limits on collection of data on peoples' browsing habits in the process, or its subsequent use. Nope. Here, we see how this redirection of external URLs can easily be used to manipulate and frustrate. Alongside of Facebook and Google's quarrels with certain governments trying to protect their news media, and subsequent removal of news for certain audiences, it's another example of so-called "tech" companies interfering with computers users' access to news. IMHO, we need to get away from using these self-interested intermediaries and start getting news directly from its sources. To be clear, the issue IMO is not why a so-called "tech" company intermediary might interfere with computer users trying access news, it is the fact that they can.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- powera 3y agoThere is a certain sense that Elon Musk paid $44 billion to do this, so he has every right to do so.
- michael1999 3y agoSure. And we have every right to call him an asshat who has made a fool of himself with his bleating about freeze peach, and lazy hypocrisy.
- rewmie 3y ago> There is a certain sense that Elon Musk paid $44 billion to do this, so he has every right to do so. Even though you can argue the free speech angle regarding news publications such as the new York times, I'm not so sure if blacklisting links to competitors such as Threads is something that sits well with antitrust agencies.
- warning26 3y agoI mean of course he has a right to do it; just like he has a right to throw away the sole valuable part of the thing he paid for (the brand). That doesn't make it any less stupid.
- giraffe_lady 3y agoThere is also a sense where it is frankly bad that having a lot of money means you get to do this.
- PraetorianGourd 3y agoI made this argument in response to people who called him out for calling Twitter employees back to the office. It is interesting, the response to the "well he owns it" argument seems to be correlated almost entirely with whether you agree with the substance of the action, independent of the righteousness.
- seanhunter 3y agoUnless it violates something like the Sherman Act[1]. Obviously we don’t know if they are actually doing this throttling and I don’t know whether it would be considered anticompetitive behaviour under that act but it is an example of where even though he has paid the money he doesn’t have the right to do so. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act
- linusg789 3y agohttps://ghostarchive.org/archive/VW9fm https://ghostarchive.org/archive/VW9fm
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoGeezus was this ripped right out of HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37130060 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37130060
- akolbe 3y agoNot a problem really, given that they gave due credit to HN. For what it's worth, nytimes.com links in t.co load at normal speed for me right now.
- suction 3y ago[dead]
- pityJuke 3y agoThey do at least credit HN. > The Post’s analysis found that links to most other sites were unaffected — including those to The Washington Post, Fox News and social media services such as Mastodon and YouTube — with the shortened links being routed to their final destination in a second or less. A user first flagged the delays early Tuesday on the technology discussion forum Hacker News.
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago[flagged]
- thomasfromcdnjs 3y agoI don't know why you are being downvoted. It is completely unsubstantiated nonsense. Just because some sites seemingly have had a 5 second delay when opening doesn't prove anything. Yes, some of the sites it was happening to Elon might not like. But you have no idea how many sites it was happening on. It could have been affecting more sites Elon likes than he dislikes. But no one can prove otherwise, so it is by definition unsubstantiated. Even using the word throttle is not an overly apt description. You can still open as many links as you like, there was just some delay. (semantics I know) Down vote me too, but there is zero proof this was nefariously enacted. As techies, we should know systems fail often in bizarre ways.
- ThrowawayTestr 3y ago[flagged]
- nightshadetrie 3y ago[flagged]
- Paratoner 3y ago[flagged]
- spoiler 3y agoI think he'd listen, if a close friend said something. Either he's built an "echo chamber" of friends, or—and I hope that's not the case—he doesn't have many good close friends. Not saying he doesn't have any friends. Just not good ones. It often takes more courage to stand up to a friend than to someone you don't like. A lot of heavy emotions are stirred up. He needs a Neville Longbottom in his life.
- xyzelement 3y agoWhere would he be vs current baseline of $220B?
- rsynnott 3y agoHe seems to have a huge need for people to pay attention to him, and in fact by his recent behaviour one might be forgiven for thinking it’s his top priority. Currently, that attention is generally negative, and not even the ‘good’ type of negative; it’s largely derisory. He would probably prefer to be getting positive attention. Also, people are just getting _bored_. Before long no-one will bother reporting on his bad or embarrassing behaviour, and then where is he?
- xyzelement 3y ago// Before long no-one will bother reporting on his bad or embarrassing behaviour, and then where is he? If the past is any indication, starting a bunch more revolutionary companies?
- CodeWriter23 3y ago[flagged]
- splendor_spoon 3y agoSource?
- CodeWriter23 3y agoI’m not your research assistant but I suggest consulting current events/Facebook files
- toomanyrichies 3y ago> I’m not your research assistant But apparently they are your research assistant? You’re the one making a claim. The burden of proof is on you. Claims which are made without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
- splendor_spoon 3y agoNo need to respond. Their response is synonymous with an admission they made the claim up. Good enough for me.
- riidom 3y agohttps://archive.li/1CaFc https://archive.li/1CaFc
- username332211 3y ago[flagged]
- eightysixfour 3y agoI am strongly in the camp that the platform previously know as Twitter can do whatever it wants, it isn’t a public square, and I stand by that now. I will also make fun of Elon for being a thin skinned toddler. Why do you assume everyone who takes that stance is on one side or the other instead of actually holding the position that they state? Do you think all people’s values are so weakly swayed by who they are applied to?
- lockhouse 3y ago[flagged]
- coldtea 3y ago>Do you think all people’s values are so weakly swayed by who they are applied to? All not. Most yes. This summarizes almost the entirety of modern social media and traditional media discussion.
- more_corn 3y agoYou present a silly position. Sure it is a private company but artificially stacking the deck against competition, either business or speech, violates the core promise of a free market democracy: that the best wins. Competition makes the best products for the lowest prices, free discourse allows the most sound ideas to rise to the top. Secretly screwing with what should be a level playing-field is dishonest and demonstrates a weakness in your products and/or ideas. Dishonesty has no place in business or public discourse. And in this case is anticompetitive which makes it illegal. Now that it has come to light you’ll see him scrambling to undo it because it doesn’t stand up to public scrutiny.
- eightysixfour 3y ago> Sure it is a private company but artificially stacking the deck against competition, either business or speech, violates the core promise of a free market democracy: that the best wins. But Twitter isn’t a free market nor a democracy. It’s a private media company. Private media companies stack the deck every day, it is THEIR deck. Don’t want a stacked deck? Don’t play their game. The only place you are (supposed to be) guaranteed a free market and democracy is from the government and with public goods. I’ve had this argument before here on HN. My end stance is that connections to the internet need to have connectivity guarantees for legal services (and they’re regulated and heavily publicly funded, so I think this is reasonable) so that people can create competitive services. However cloud providers, private platforms, etc. don’t owe you anything beyond their own T&Cs, which they can obviously change. Also, open invite to email me at the address in my profile. I have a virtual Sunday morning coffee group that loves to argue over stuff like this and you’re welcome to join and we can talk it out.
- eggy 3y ago[flagged]
- mypastself 3y agoIs there a context for Musk’s “free speech absolutist” quote? I see it referenced frequently, but can’t seem to find the original.
- SpicyLemonZest 3y agoHe originally said it in response to a request from some (unnamed) governments to block Russian news sources after the invasion of Ukraine. (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1499976967105433600 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1499976967105433600)
- rewmie 3y agoWasn't Musk's Twitter caught blacklisting comments regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine? Sounds awfully hypocritical to defend the right to post unfiltered Russian propaganda while at the same time blacklist comments from Russia's invasion and ongoing genocide of the ukranian people.
- mikrotikker 3y agoYes we should be able to see inside of Russia and what is going on over there and to see their propaganda because it can be quite informative as to their motivations and goals and what not.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]