X Product Chief Tells Pope Links Won’t Deboost Posts

Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, intervened publicly on May 31 to correct a belief about the platform’s ranking system. Bier replied to the Vatican account @Pontifex after it posted an excerpt of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas with a link to the full text on vatican.va.

A user had suggested the Vatican place the URL in a threaded reply rather than the original post to improve algorithmic performance. Bier wrote in the thread, “Hey Pope, this isn’t true. Links will not deboost your post.” The exchange remained visible to X’s public audience.

The idea that linking to off-platform sites reduces a post’s reach has circulated among social media managers for years. That belief has led some accounts to place links in replies or threads to avoid what they perceive as a penalty from platform algorithms.

Bier joined X in mid-2025 after creating the apps TBH and Gas, which were acquired by other tech firms. His responsibilities include oversight of the platform’s ranking and recommendation systems.

During his first year at X, Bier has been involved in several public controversies. In early 2026, creators in the cryptocurrency community reported declines in reach for crypto-related posts and alleged suppression. A planned change to creator revenue sharing was paused by owner Elon Musk within hours of its announcement. Bier has also discussed ongoing issues with crypto bot spam and previewed a product aimed at rebuilding X’s relationship with digital assets.

Magnifica Humanitas was signed by Pope Leo XIV on May 15 and runs about 42,300 words. The encyclical addresses artificial intelligence and ethics and was released on the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII’s foundational text on labor. The document was presented at the Vatican alongside Christopher Olah, a co-founder of the AI company Anthropic.

Bier’s single-line correction focused on a specific technical point about link handling and appeared in the same public thread that contained the Vatican post and the user suggestion.