• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 12, 2023

Backlinks have become the thread that leads a user from one platform to another to discover more information about a topic, but Twitter is reportedly blocking links to its new rival, Meta Threads.

Reports began Monday that Twitter seems to selectively block links to Threads.net’s website in Twitter searches, making it more difficult for anyone to surface conversations on Threads or locate users’ profiles.

Technologist and blogger Andy Baio, who goes by the name of waxpancake on Threads, initially discovered the change on Twitter after performing a search using “url:threads.net,” which returned no results. It would typically pull tweets with links to the website. Not in this case.

A simpler search without the “url:” returned tweets that reference the threads.net website or Twitter users tweeting their Threads usernames to followers. It just didn’t return direct links to discussions taking place on Threads’ platform, reported TechCrunch.

Baio also points to a workaround to bypassing the block via @kepner, a software engineer, who suggested adding “filter:follows” and clicking “Latest” to serve up a list of a user who has posted links to Threads. The Twitter search filters--url:"threads net" filter:follows--helps people find their favorite follows on Threads.

Blocking links could be considered anticompetitive. Baio told The Messenger. “Hiding tweets about Threads seems fully 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.”