X to prohibit hashtags in ads as Elon Musk calls them an “Esthetic Nightmare”

New Delhi: Elon Musk announced that hashtags will no longer be allowed in ads on X.

“Starting tomorrow, the esthetic nightmare that is hashtags will be banned from ads on 𝕏,” Musk wrote in a post on Thursday.

While hashtags have long served as a key discovery and engagement tool on social media, Musk’s branding of them as visually disruptive suggests a shift toward cleaner ad formats on X.

This decision follows his earlier comments in December 2024, where he urged users to stop using hashtags altogether, stating, “The system doesn’t need them anymore and they look ugly.”

Musk claims that the platform’s algorithms can effectively categorise and surface content without relying on hashtags. 

According to him, X’s search and discovery systems, powered by technologies like Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI, have rendered hashtags obsolete.