X, a tech company, recently implemented a new link experiment on iOS that has sparked discussions about potentially inflating website traffic artificially. Platforms like Substack and Bluesky observed a significant increase in what they perceive as ‘fake’ views following the update. Nick Eubanks, VP of owned media at Semrush, explained that this phenomenon is linked to a behavior where content preloads before user interaction.
Eubanks told The Verge that this situation exemplifies metrics distortion due to platform-level product experimentation. Under the new experiment, clicking on a link collapses a post, enabling users to engage with various functions while viewing the webpage, unlike the previous experience where external content loading blocked the original X post, affecting engagement.
Eubanks highlighted that X’s new preloading system fetches the destination page in the background before actual user interaction, leading to inflated analytics, potentially misleading advertisers and publishers with false traffic data.
Substack CEO, Chris Best, initially celebrated the traffic surge on his platform post X’s update but later realized a significant portion of the increase was artificial. Despite this, Substack still noted a genuine traffic rise even after accounting for the fake views. Similarly, Paul Frazee from Bluesky expressed how X’s new system impacted their metrics for assessing daily active users who are not logged in.
Source: The Verge