Given that Threads seems to suppress posts linking to other websites, and the audience there isn't particularly interested in news, I'm not surprised the BBC has given up on it. The fact the algorithm recommends you everything but what you're interested in and engagement is questionable even for larger accounts is just the icing on the cake.
But I'm honestly not sure any of these alternative platforms is going to replace Twitter for news anytime soon. BlueSky feels a lot like Threads activity wise; decent to mediocre engagement for popular accounts and barely any for regular folks/new users, and Mastodon has high engagement, but a far more technical, niche audience.
And neither really care much more about news than Threads does. Probably because of all the toxicity that news posts tend to bring over on Twitter/X, and these services acting as an escape from that...
So I've been searching for a few minutes on threads and duckduckgo, but I can't find mention of this anywhere. Keeping people from clicking through to another site is a dark pattern - accepted maybe, but not cool. This is the first I've heard about it, so I am not convinced yet. I wonder.
But I'm honestly not sure any of these alternative platforms is going to replace Twitter for news anytime soon. BlueSky feels a lot like Threads activity wise; decent to mediocre engagement for popular accounts and barely any for regular folks/new users, and Mastodon has high engagement, but a far more technical, niche audience.
And neither really care much more about news than Threads does. Probably because of all the toxicity that news posts tend to bring over on Twitter/X, and these services acting as an escape from that...