Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, slowed down access to rivals and news organisations, according to a new report. The company seemingly added a delay of as long as five seconds when people clicked on links to go elsewhere on the web, according to a Washington Post report. The delay was applied to a host of rival websites, including Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky. It was also used on the websites of news organisations that have been critical of Mr Musk, such as Reuters and the New York Times. Clicking a link on X to one of the affected websites resulted in a delay of about five seconds before the webpage loaded, the Washington Post reported, citing tests it conducted on Tuesday. Reuters also saw a similar delay in tests it ran. By late Tuesday afternoon, X appeared to have eliminated the delay. When contacted for comment, X confirmed the delay was removed but did not elaborate. Billionaire ElonMusk, who bought Twitter in October, has previously lashed out at news organizations and journalists who have reported critically on his companies, which include Tesla and SpaceX. Twitter has previously prevented users from posting links to competing social media platforms. Reuters could not establish the precise time when X began delaying links to some websites. A user on Hacker News, a tech forum, posted about the delay earlier on Tuesday and wrote that X began delaying links to the New York Times on Aug. 4. On that day, Musk criticized the publication’s coverage of South Africa and accused it of supporting calls for genocide. Reuters has no evidence that the two events are related. A spokesperson for the New York Times said it has not received an explanation from X about the link delay. “While we don’t know the rationale behind the application of this time delay, we would be concerned by targeted pressure applied to any news organization for unclear reasons,” the spokesperson said on Tuesday. A Reuters spokesperson said: “We are aware of the report in the Washington Post of a delay in opening links to Reuters stories on X. We are looking into the matter.” Bluesky, an X rival that has Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on its board, did not reply to a request for comment. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Additional reporting by Reuters Read More Twitter turning Tweetdeck into paid service after slowing down access to rivals The last parts of Twitter are being removed Musk pledges to fund legal bills of X users ‘unfairly treated’ by employers for posts Musk’s Twitter takeover sparks mass exodus of climate experts Snapchat experiences ‘temporary outage’ as My AI chatbot posts own Story WhatsApp rolls out AI tool for creating custom art

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 25, 2023--

The streamer and social media influencer Kai Cenat is at the centre of mayhem that erupted in New York City's Union Square on Friday after he announced that he would be giving away Playstation 5 consoles. Cenat and fellow streamer Fanum had teased the giveaway to their millions of followers on Instagram, that it was scheduled to take place at 4pm. However, a mass crowd, estimated to be around 2000 people arrived on the scene leading to unsavoury scenes which resulted in the injuries of a reported 12 people. Fighting and the throwing of fire extinguishers were also reported with two people being arrested. Some revelers also climbed on the roof of Union Square station. On a live stream at the event, Cenat could be heard saying: "Look at this! hey standing like in f*****g unity, bro." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He also added: "Everybody for themselves, it's a war out there man." Cenat had also teased that items such as gaming PCs, gift cards and gaming Chairs would be given away at the event. Amid the chaos it has been reported that Cenat was placed into law enforcement custody as confirmed by the New York Police Department. Who is Kai Cenat? 21-year-old Cenat, real name Kai Carlo Cenat III, was born in New York in December 2001. He is one of the most popular streamers and influencers on the internet today. He is the most subscribed to Twitch streamer ever with more than 300,000 at his peak in February 2023. He also has more than 6 million followers on Instagram and more than 4 million subscribers on YouTube. Most of his content revolves around video games, comedy and pranks. He is said to have a net worth of around $12 million. In May he was named as one of Rolling Stone magazine's most influential people on social media. In the prior month he was temporarily banned from Twitch for reportedly violating the platform's rules. Also in May, he and fellow streamer iShowSpeed signed a lucrative deal with rival platform Rumble to produce a handful of livestreams a month. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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