Twitter Delays Access to Content on Reuters and New York Times
*Published Date: August 16, 2023*
A report published by The Washington Post late on Tuesday revealed that the social media platform **"X"**, formerly known as Twitter, has delayed access to links leading to content on websites of Reuters and The New York Times, as well as competing platforms such as **"BlueSky"**, **Facebook**, and **Instagram**.
According to The Washington Post, based on tests conducted on Tuesday, clicking on a link within X to any of the affected websites resulted in a delay of around five seconds before the web page loaded.
In response, Reuters news agency confirmed a similar delay in tests they conducted.
By late Tuesday, it appeared that X had removed the delay. When Reuters reached out to the company for comment, X confirmed that the delay had been lifted, but did not provide further details.
Billionaire **Elon Musk**, who acquired Twitter in late October of the previous year for $44 billion USD, had previously criticized news institutions and journalists who criticized his companies in their reports, including Tesla and SpaceX.
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Previously, Twitter had prevented users from posting links to competing social media platforms. The exact time when X began delaying links to certain websites is unknown.
A user on **Hacker News** reported the delay earlier on Tuesday, stating that X started delaying links to The New York Times on August 4th.
On that day, Musk criticized the newspaper's coverage of South Africa and accused it of supporting calls for genocide.
A spokesperson for The New York Times mentioned that they had not received any explanation from X regarding the link delay. The spokesperson said on Tuesday, "While we don't know the logical reason behind implementing this time delay, we are concerned about the targeted pressure applied to any news institution for unclear reasons."
A spokesperson for Reuters stated, "We are aware of the report published by The Washington Post about the delay in opening links to Reuters news on the X website. We are investigating the matter."