Elon Musk is banning hashtags from ads on X

He calls them an "esthetic nightmare."

Meera Navlakha

on June 26, 2025

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The 'X' logo on a phone screen.

Credit: NurPhoto/GettyImages.

Starting on Friday, X will no longer allow hashtags in advertisements on the platform.

Elon Musk announced the change on his account, calling hashtags an "esthetic nightmare."

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This is just the latest move in Musk's rebranding of X since he acquired the platform in 2022. It's unclear how much this will actually affect advertisers on the platform. For many, hashtags likely helped in increasing engagement and attracting more viewers. Some users, however, say that hashtags provide little benefit to advertisers.

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Musk has voiced alarmingly strong views on hashtags in the past. Back in December, the billionaire and ex-White House "special employee" called hashtags "ugly" and asked people to stop using them.

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But while X won't allow hashtags for ads anymore, regular posts can still use them. For now.

Meera is a journalist based between London and New York. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Vice, The Independent, Vogue India, W Magazine, and others. She was previously a Culture Reporter at Mashable.

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