· Company action
X found to delay links to New York Times, Reuters and rival platforms by about five seconds
What he said or did
A Washington Post analysis, confirmed in Reuters tests, found X delayed by about five seconds the loading of links to The New York Times and Reuters and to rival platforms including Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram.
Background
Musk had publicly criticised The New York Times, including on 4 August 2023 over its South Africa coverage. Reuters said it found no evidence linking that criticism to the delay.
Official response
X confirmed the delay had been removed but gave no explanation. A New York Times spokesperson said we don't know the rationale behind the application of this time delay
and that the paper would be concerned by targeted pressure on any news organisation.
Fact-checks and findings
The Open Markets Institute's Max von Thun told The Markup: It seems rather clear that this is an anti-competitive tactic designed to undermine X's rivals.
What happened next
The delay on news sites was lifted the same day, but The Markup reported in September 2023 that links to Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Substack still took about 2.5 seconds versus 39 milliseconds for other domains.
Sources
- Reuters (via Cumhuriyet)16 Aug 2023
- The Markup15 Sep 2023
This entry records what was publicly said or done, as reported by the sources above. Quotes are attributed to the person who made them.
