• X no longer displays links.
• Instead, users will now see an image with a tiny link indicated the post features a link.
• Elon Musk says the change comes directly from him and will “greatly improve the esthetics”.

Foolish, that is the simplest way we can describe the latest update to X, formerly Twitter.

This morning we woke up to see that links on X had disappeared, instead, users will now see a header image with a tiny piece of text in the bottom left corner announcing it’s not just an image, it’s a link.

The change was announced in August but as with all things surrounding X/Twitter, it’s taken a few months to go live.

At first we figured that links were creating a problem on X’s infrastructure. Perhaps serving hypertext to users was too much of a burden, but no, sadly Musk doesn’t like the look of links on his website.

“This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics,” the billionaire told one of his fans.

There has of course been speculation that Musk made this move because he wants people to post on X rather than posting elsewhere and sending users away from Twitter. Indeed, shortly after taking over the reigns at Twitter, Musk blocked users from posting links to competitors including Instagram, Mastodon and even Truth Social.

If the removal of links is indeed intended to improve engagement, Musk may just have chopped his own nose off to spite his face. We say this because good cybersecurity hygiene means never clicking a link you don’t know the destination of. Essentially, Musk is asking users to trust that others won’t lead them to a website teeming with malware or a phishing scam. That’s a big ask and frankly, it’s not a risk we’re willing to take.

A quick glance around X reveals that many users aren’t fans of the change purely because it makes determining the difference between a link and a plain image very tricky. This change also gives bad actors an easier way to spread misinformation, scams and worse.

Folks have pointed out that if anything, this change will lower engagement as users may scroll by an image not realising its a link. Not that this matters as a view on X these days is defined as anybody who is logged in that sees a post.

Whether this change lasts remains to be seen but it’s really among the worst updates to the platform so far.