Elon Musk has announced he is banning a feature on X that he claims is being ‘abused for engagement farming’ and causing ‘his eyes to bleed.’
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla acquired the company, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022.
Over the past two years, he has implemented several changes, most notably to the platform’s name and logo.
Other modifications include making the verification blue tick available to premium subscribers and hiding users’ liked posts from public view.
In April, Musk warned that he would ‘suspend and trace to the source’ any accounts engaging in engagement farming.
Engagement farming involves using manipulative techniques to maximize interaction on posts, such as content designed to provoke outrage or conversation, or specific meme formats.
Now, Musk is addressing another tactic used by such accounts.
On October 1, he posted: “Due to immediate and excessive use of bold font on X, it will be removed from view in the main timeline.
“You will have to click on post details to see anything in bold. My eyes are bleeding.”
He continued: “Same goes for italics and any other formatting. They are being abused for engagement farming.”
Musk’s announcement has been viewed over 25 million times, garnering more than 120k likes and thousands of responses.
Many users welcomed the change. One person commented: “Thank you for preserving the aesthetics of X.”
Another user added: “I ain’t even mad” while a third remarked: “holy s**t he is doing something to improve the app” (sic).
Some users were unaware of the feature, with one admitting: “I didn’t even know we could do that…Oh well.”
Another questioned: “How do you even post in bold? I’m so behind.”
Yahoo! News previously reported that engagement farming is typically ‘done with individual accounts.’ Accounts may join influencer pods to boost each other’s engagement – the number of likes, shares, and comments they receive – on a larger scale.
This can involve replicating popular meme formats, recycling content, and follow-baiting – where accounts follow others en masse to increase their own follower count before unfollowing.
Most accounts are limited to following 5,000 people at once until their own follower count increases.
The exact date for the removal of bold font from the main timelines on X is not known. Musk has not provided further details on how he plans to combat engagement farming.