Musk to ban bold font on X over engagement farming

Elon Musk plans to ban a feature on X, formerly known as Twitter, which he claims is ‘abused for engagement farming’ and ‘making his eyes bleed.’ Musk, who acquired the platform in 2022, has introduced several changes since then, including renaming and rebranding the company. He also made the blue verification tick available to premium subscribers and recently hid users’ liked posts from public view.

In April, Musk warned he would ‘suspend and trace to the source’ any accounts involved in engagement farming, a tactic where users employ manipulative methods to boost interaction on their posts. This can involve provoking outrage, sparking conversation, or using specific meme formats.

On October 1, Musk announced he would remove bold font from the main timeline due to its excessive use. Users will now have to click on post details to view anything in bold. He expressed his frustration, stating, “My eyes are bleeding.” He also indicated that italics and other formatting would be similarly restricted, as they too are being exploited for engagement farming.

Musk’s announcement garnered significant attention, with his post viewed over 25 million times, receiving more than 120,000 likes and thousands of comments. Many users welcomed the change, appreciating the effort to preserve the platform’s aesthetics. Some users admitted they were unaware of the bold font feature, while others questioned how to use it.

Engagement farming, often carried out by individual accounts, can involve joining influencer pods to boost likes, shares, and comments. Strategies include replicating popular memes, recycling content, and follow-baiting, where accounts follow many users to increase their follower count before unfollowing them.

Most accounts are limited to following 5,000 people until their own follower count rises. The exact date for the removal of the bold font from main timelines on X remains unknown, and Musk has not provided additional details on combating engagement farming.