In true Elon fashion, X (formerly Twitter) is making yet another design-first decision. This time, X is banning hashtags in promoted posts.
The move, announced directly by Musk himself, is meant to “improve the look and responsiveness” of ads on the platform. Or, as he put it: “Starting tomorrow, the aesthetic nightmare that is hashtags will be banned from ads on X.”
So yes, it’s a vibe thing.Not a performance thing.
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But here’s the twist: X’s ad team had actually been advising against hashtags in promoted content for years. The reasoning? Hashtags are great for organic engagement, not so much for paid performance. They link out to broader conversations, which means less focus on your call-to-action.
As one former Twitter ads expert put it: “If your goal is to have people go to your website or follow your account, you don’t want to risk someone clicking on a hashtag instead of your CTA.”
So the logic is there. But banning hashtags altogether? That’s where things feel… personal.
Imagine a campaign that revolves around a custom hashtag such as #LikeAGirl, #ShotOniPhone, #JustDoIt. Under this new policy, brands can’t promote that creative directly. Seems like a loss for brand storytelling, even if the metrics don’t immediately suffer.
And let’s be honest: this isn’t the first time Elon has pushed an aesthetic-first update. Remember when he floated the idea of removing all in-feed function buttons, replies, likes, retweets, in favor of a swipe-based interface? That one didn’t make it past testing.
This one will. Will it change anything drastically? Probably not. But it’s yet another reminder that the version of X we’re living in now runs on personal taste as much as product vision.
Hashtags in ads? Canceled. Because Elon thinks they’re ugly.