Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is preparing to rewrite how news links appear on the platform, the latest change led by owner Elon Musk to affect news publishers on the site.
The news was first reported by Fortune on Monday and confirmed on a Facebook page Post by Misk Later in the day: “This comes directly from me. It will greatly improve the aesthetics.” [sic]He wrote. The platform will no longer display headlines and other text from news links and will display only the main image, limiting the user’s ability to see the contents before clicking on them.
Currently, news links appear on users’ timelines as “cards” along with an image, source title, and short title. Such a package helps in attracting clicks and helps publishers in acquiring readers.
This move may be an attempt to get people to sign up for the premium X service. With shortened links, users may be tempted to include more text with their posts. The premium service allows a single post of up to 25,000 characters.
It’s not immediately clear how this will affect advertisers on the platform, which Musk claimed in July has 540 million monthly users.
With these changes, Musk is promoting X as a more creator-friendly platform. Premium subscribers can now post longer videos, have their posts appear higher and also get a percentage of ad sales.
Musk has made a number of sudden changes to Twitter since taking over as owner in October 2022, many of which have negatively affected the news media that make up a large portion of his user base. The billionaire has suspended journalists from the platform, removed verification from several media personalities, and attempted to launch his own journalistic endeavors with a project called Twitter Profiles, where he gets journalists to post “investigations” directly on the platform.
“If you are a journalist who wants more writing freedom and a higher income, publish directly on this platform!” Posted this week. After acquiring the platform formerly known as Twitter, Musk largely dissolved his public relations department and stopped responding to media requests from journalists. Previously, comment requests were answered with a poo emoji. When contacted for comment on Tuesday, X replied with an automated response.
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