Tech Desk 
Jun 28, 2025
In a substantial blow to advertisers and marketers, Elon Musk announced today that hashtags will no longer be used in advertisements on X, the social media platform he rebranded after taking over.
The revision has taken effect on Friday and will apply exclusively to paid content, while regular posts, on the other hand, will be immune to the newly announced hashtag ban.
In a separate post, Musk described hashtags as an “esthetic nightmare,” claiming that their removal is crucial to improve the visual appeal of promotional content.
The tech billionaire has long been critical of hashtags, as he previously labelled them as “ugly” and outdated.
This decision comes on the heels of his December 2024 remarks encouraging users to abandon hashtags altogether. He also argued that X’s AI systems, including the Grok chatbot developed by xAI, are efficient enought to identify and organise content without requiring traditional hashtags.
Hashtags were introduced on Twitter in 2007 as a means of grouping conversations and highlighting trending topics. Their removal from advertisements marks a significant departure from one of the platform’s earliest and most recognisable features.
Under Musk’s ownership, X has more inclined towards algorithm-driven visibility of content, prioritising cleaner visuals and automated content organisation.
