Twitter May Be Restricting Search Results Related to Content From Competitor Platforms
Twitter’s leadership, including Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino, appears to have shown a significant level of concern towards Meta’s Threads, their rival. Recent reports suggest that the microblogging platform has initiated restrictions on search results, specifically when users search for links and accounts associated with Threads content.
“Twitter is selectively blocking searches for tweets linking to Threads, even though they allow thread URLs to be posted (for now),” one user wrote on Twitter.
Meta’s Threads recently crossed the 100 million user mark, positioning itself as a serious competitor to Twitter. TechCrunch reports that Twitter is making it harder for users to find discussions on a topic or search for profiles.
Technologist Andy Baio was among the first people to notice that Twitter was restricting search results when searching using the “url:threads.net” operator. This search revealed no results.
Similarly, searching for “threads.net” without the “url:” operator returns a bunch of irrelevant results from users who have a Threads account in their screen name or who are discussing threads without linking to it.
Twitter, owned by Elon Musk, has placed restrictions on links to various platforms such as Substack, Mastodon and other social media networks.
While these actions are internal company decisions, Musk has not shied away from openly criticizing Mark Zuckerberg, owner of rival platform Threads. Musk recently took to Twitter to refer to Zuckerberg as a “cucumber,” and rumors of a potential matchup between the two in a supposed “cage match” are heating up.
