X Raises the Bar on Link Posting Costs
X has increased the cost of posting links through its API from $0.01 to $0.20, with some publications already feeling the pinch.
The Move to Curb Spam and Misuse
The company says the price hike is designed to thwart spam and 'vectors of misuse.' However, the change has sparked debate among news outlets, with some questioning the impact on engagement and reach.
Techmeme, a popular tech news aggregator, has stopped adding links to its posts on X, citing a Nieman Lab study that noted including links resulted in dropped engagement.
-The study found that accounts that posted links with headlines had limited reach.
X's head of product, Nikita Bier, refuted the study's results, saying that the accounts covered in the study were 'habitual headline+link posters' that posted no additional context.
However, Techmeme's founder Gabe Rivera argued that the price increase would force news sites to pay hundreds of dollars or post manually.
-This move might discourage many publications from posting links, as Rivera pointed out.
The debate around X reducing the reach of posts with links is not new, with the company previously cutting headlines from link previews on the platform.
-This move has raised questions about the future of news on the platform and whether it will prioritize quality over quantity.
-As one publication noted, 'if you have a news site that tweets links, and you don't tweet them manually, you now have to pay X hundreds of dollars per month?'