Here's why Twitter sends you to a different site than what you clicked

Users of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) 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. A Twitter ad spotted below by a security researcher shows forbes.com as its destination but instead takes you to a Telegram account purportedly promoting crypto scams. Security researcher Will Dormann spotted a Twitter post with a link to "forbes.com." The post from a verified account, when seen by the researcher, was being promoted as an ad on the platform too: Clicking on the link in a web browser, however, would instead redirect a majority of the users to a "Crypto with Harry" Telegram account, which appears to offer dubious cryptocurrency advice: 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. The social media platform tries to determine (albeit unsuccessfully) the ultimate destination where a URL takes you and shows that as the website name, in a post. The post in question, is actually, first taking users to a website called joinchannelnow[.]net which has been operational since January 29th this year (and surprise, registered on Namecheap). Unlike X, Google Chrome shows you this (first) destination when you hover over the link: Once a user arrives at joinchannelnow[.]net, its server determines whether a request originates from a web browser or a bot—such as Twitter's, be...