Security News > 2024 > March > Here's why Twitter sends you to a different site than what you clicked
Users of the social media platform X have often been left puzzled when they click on a post with an external link but arrive at an entirely unexpected website from the one displayed in the post.
Don't trust link previews on X. Security researcher Will Dormann spotted a Twitter post with a link to "Forbes.com."
While external link previews should ideally show the first immediate domain a link takes you to when you click on it, X does the opposite.
If a request is coming from a web browser, meaning most likely a human clicked on the link, joinchannelnow happily and sneakily redirects the user to the Telegram account shown above.
Suffice to say, it's best not to click on external links in Twitter posts and ads without hovering over them and paying close attention to the URL shown in your browser's status bar.
On mobile devices, it's safest to not tap on posts with links at all.