Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, will introduce a feature soon that will enable users to disable hyperlinks in reply to their posts. The feature is not officially announced, and no reason has been given for its creation. However, it’s likely that the aim of the new feature was to combat spam bots. This will leave links to self-promotional sites in replies to other people’s posts.
New updations in X
Christopher Stanley, X’s Senior Director for Security Engineering, confirmed the first one in response to a blog post. Nima Owji, an independent app researcher, first spotted it. Stanley replied to a comment about the new feature by saying: “My team created this.”
The feature is welcomed by users who are tired of spam bots posting irrelevant and unrelated links. However, it may hinder those trying to fact check a post in order to limit its impact. We don’t yet know if the new feature, which blocks links, will be available for free users, or if it will only be available to X users who pay.
Musk has made it a priority to combat spam bots ever since he became CEO. Musk stated in a X post earlier this year that “a systemic purge of trolls and bots is underway”. He also said that the social media site would find the bots’ owners, while using “the full power of the law” against them.
The billionaire also tried out a ‘Not a Bot” programme in the Philippines and New Zealand for new users. The program requires that new users pay $1 per year to use basic features such as replying, liking or bookmarking a post.
