Twitter/X strips headlines out of news links: “It’s something Elon wants”

Elon Musk doesn't want any news headlines on the social network formerly named Twitter. A change that started rolling out yesterday strips headlines out of news links, which Musk claims will make links look better on the social network that he renamed X.

"This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics," Musk wrote in a twitter.com post on August 22 after the change was reported to be in the works. The change is now live on the mobile app and web version but hasn't made its way to all of the company's apps. News link headlines continue to be displayed today on the Mac app, which is still called Twitter and hasn't been updated in nearly a year.

Previously, posting a news link on X/Twitter would create a box with the article's lead image, headline, and the domain of the news site. Now, a news link on X is just the article image with the site domain (e.g., arstechnica.com) superimposed on the bottom left. Clicking the image will take you to the news site's article.

A tweeter (or Xer, as Musk prefers) can still post the headline and/or a description of the article in the main text field. If the user doesn't do that, the post won't have any text describing what the article is about.

Here's what links look like before and after the change:

Before

After

Fortune reported in August that the change was in the works. "It's something Elon wants. They were running it by advertisers, who didn't like it, but it's happening," Fortune quoted a source as saying. The article said Musk's intent "is that individuals sharing this type of content will be forced to write a more engaging post."

Referrals to news sites were already plunging

While the change is potentially confusing for users, it might not make a big difference for news organizations that already weren't getting much traffic from the site. Referrals to news sites from Twitter/X and Facebook have been plunging since August 2020, according to Similarweb data cited in an Axios report this week.

Musk indicated that he wants news organizations to "post content in long form" directly on the social platform. Responding to a twitter.com post yesterday about the declining referrals from social networks to news sites, Musk wrote, "Our algorithm tries to optimize time spent on X, so links don't get as much attention, because there is less time spent if people click away. Best thing is to post content in long form on this platform."

Musk has fought with news organizations numerous times, for example, by calling The New York Times "propaganda" and labeling NPR as "state-affiliated media." Yesterday, he wrote, "I almost never read legacy news anymore." Some news organizations, such as NPR and PBS, have stopped tweeting from their main accounts.

Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter in October 2022, a purchase that saddled the firm with large debt payments. In May, Fidelity estimated the company value at $15 billion.

X's daily active users have reportedly fallen 3.7 percent, to 245 million, since Musk bought the company then called Twitter. The Musk-led social network's US ad revenue "has declined at least 55 percent year-over-year each month" since the Musk takeover, according to third-party data described in a Reuters article yesterday.