As the site, formerly known as Twitter, continues to combat spam on its platform, the Elon Musk-led company is developing a feature that would allow users to disable links in replies to its posts.
applied researcher Nima Owji was the first to discover this feature late last week. Christopher Stanley, senior director of security engineering at X, confirmed its authenticity in a reply, writing “my team built this.”
My team built this.
— Christopher Stanley (@cstanley) July 19, 2024
Most users haven’t taken advantage of this feature yet. It’s unclear if the service will only be available to premium users who pay monthly, or if it will be more widely available (or eventually).
The move could reduce the amount of spam users see, especially as social media sites engage in an ongoing war with bots, which flood X with links to sites that are often infected with malware or viruses.
While this is certainly a good thing, it can also inhibit the free flow of information when people use legitimate sources to support their opinions. It can also lead to people simply reinforcing their beliefs without facing any form of challenge.
That could be especially problematic in a chaotic election year when misinformation spreads.
X has introduced many new features over the past year. The company reportedly plans to add Venmo-like payment features and communities focused on adult content. The site has also recently made changes that prevent users from seeing who has “liked” their posts and put more focus on Musk’s Grok AI project, which is an option for power users.
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