Twitter is blocking links to its new rival, Meta’s Threads.
Reports began to surface on Monday that Twitter was selectively blocking links to Mark Zuckerberg’s latest social media app. Users noted that while some links worked, others notably did not.
The move means it will be harder for people to track conversations in Threads and locate user profiles.
Why we care Since Threads launched on July 5, the app has become the fastest growing social media platform in history and regularly trending on Twitter. Experts believe the decision to block selected links to Threads from Twitter’s search results is an attempt to keep users engaged on the platform rather than away from its rival.
What have people said? American technologist and blogger Andy Baio was one of many people on Twitter who noticed that selected links on Threads were not working. Confirmed the problem after doing a search query with the “url:threads.net” operator. After that search yielded no results, he shared his findings on Threads:
“Twitter is selectively blocking searches for tweets that link to Threads, although they allow Threads URLs to be posted (for now).”
However, Baio shared a technique that users can implement to avoid the crash:
“A clever workaround via @kepner, you can quote the domain name and remove the period to avoid blocking.” “Adding ‘filter:follows’ and clicking Last will show you everyone you follow who has posted links to Threads.”
In an exchange with the messenger, Baio called Twitter’s move “anti-competitive.” He said:
“Hiding tweets on Threads seems squarely in line with Twitter’s new anti-competitive stance, creating a fully walled garden that blocks open expression while hypocritically claiming to promote free speech.”
why now
What did Twitter say? Twitter is clearly taking people’s concerns very seriously. So much so that the platform responded to our request for comment with a poop emoji, perhaps indicating that it’s now in fight-or-flight mode in response to Thread’s growing popularity.
Twitter owner Elon Musk has also addressed the increasingly tense rivalry between himself and Meta CEO Zuckerberg. Earlier this week, when Threads signups topped 100 million, the billionaire tweeted “Zuck is a cuck.”
He then assured his loyal army of followers that Zuckerberg isn’t remotely threatening him by proposing “a literal shit-measuring contest.” In case anyone was confused by the word “measure,” he added a ruler emoji to clarify.
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Twitter blocks unregistered users and Google Search. It looks like Musk isn’t trolling his good friend Zuckerbeg, he may have his finger on the block button, as in addition to restricting links to Threads, he also blocked unregistered users and Google Search last week. As a result, there was a 62% drop in Google’s index saturation of Twitter.com.
This was another move by Twitter that may be of great concern to marketers, as it could affect the reach of brands that may rely heavily on visibility on Google Search. It also means that some older tweets that have historically always ranked well in Google Search may see a dip in rankings and therefore reach and CTR.
deep dive During Threads’ first two days of operation, Twitter traffic was down 5% compared to the same period the previous week. It was also down 11% compared to the same period last year. Read the full SimilarWeb analysis report to find out how Twitter and Threads compete with each other.
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