Elon Musk says hashtags will be banned from ads on X starting tomorrow: ‘Esthetic nightmare’

Accounts on X will no longer be able to use hashtags from tomorrow on their advertisements, the microblogging platform's CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday.

Calling hashtags an ‘esthetic nightmare’, Musk said that the ban will be implemented from Friday.

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

Normal posts on X are expected to still be able to use hashtags, with Musk specifically mentioning that the new rule is only applicable for ads on the microblogging platform.

Hashtags have long served as a key tool for discovery and engagement on social media. However, Musk's suggestion that they are visually disruptive paves the way for a cleaner ad format on X.

Elon Musk on hashtags

The hashtag ban on X ads comes months after Elon Musk in December 2024 had called them ‘ugly’ and urged people to not use it anymore.

“Please stop using hashtags. The system doesn't need them anymore, and they look ugly,” he replied to a post.

The X owner had at the time suggested that AI tools could replace the need for traditional hashtags.

He claimed that X's discovery and search algorithm, powered by XAI-made AI chatbot Grok, can now group and display subjects without using hashtags.

Hashtags were first popularised by Twitter, now known as X, in 2007. Their aim was to group conversations and trends. However, under Musk's leadership, the trend is now moving towards a cleaner and more visually pleasing user experience.

Social media hails move

Users on X hailed Elon Musk's move to ban the hashtags for ads on X.

“Hashtags don’t work I don’t why know many people still use it,” a user said.

“Nice move. This should make the timeline more clean. Also start cleaning up the bots! They even do articles now and mass tag people to make them click of spam malicious links,” another suggested.

“Good idea. Hashtags become redundant after you have a working algorithm… probably get rid of hashtags entirely [sic],” a third user added.