X makes posting links 1,900 percent more expensive

Posting links to X through dedicated social media software has become much more expensive. On Monday, X significantly increased the cost of publishing a URL via the X API, which is what third-party tools use to link to the platform. He – she costs now $0.20 when you post a link, up from $0.01.

Any change to make post linking more expensive would likely make X less attractive to publishers than it already is, especially in light of widely held suspicions that linking to news articles could reduce a post’s reach. The case appeared in A The last dispute Between Nate Silver and X’s head of product, Nikita Beer, who claimed that links existed “Unreinforced.” but Recent study from Neiman Laboratory An analysis of posts from 18 large media outlets found that links “appear to hurt news publishers” on X.

The price hike is already affecting a prominent X account in the tech world: news aggregator Techmeme. Until Sunday, Techmeme Posts on X They will have short headlines that summarize the news and link to the source. But now, the link has been replaced with a message: “Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!” Naturally, this makes Techmeme X posts much less useful.

Techmeme now does not include links in its tweets because “the cost of publishing links using X’s API today increased by 1900%,” Techmeme X account He wrote on Monday. Techmeme also noted Neiman Laboratory He studies.

Bier was pushed back into Techmeme, saying that The problem with the study mentioned is that Bear also said In response For Techmeme Founder and CEO Gabe Rivera, “I’m telling you straight up: There’s no code that unboosts links.” Bier offered to “personally pay for the higher API prices,” with the goal being to “reduce spam attacks.”

“I really doubt that higher API prices will solve X’s spam problem in the long run, but hey, not my call!” Rivera says Edge. Rivera also pointed out other places users can find Techmeme, including his own site WebsiteRSS feed and newsletter. “And we post links to Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon,” he says.