X stopped displaying headlines in posts similar to news articles on its online desktop page Thursday morning, following what owner Elon Musk said was an effort to improve the look and feel of the platform, formerly Twitter.
The update began rolling out to Twitter’s mobile apps on Wednesday and began appearing on the online page after ET.
In the past, links to news articles about X were displayed as “cards,” adding the main image of the article, a headline, and a one-line summary.
News links now display a main, clickable image linking to the news, with a small watermark at the bottom left indicating the news website’s call.
The update could affect X’s ability to drive traffic to media, as the design update makes it difficult to distinguish between tweets with images and tweets with news links.
The replacement also appears to be retroactive, as news links posted before the replacement no longer display the name.
The update was met with complaints from users of the platform, the journalists added. Jonathan Swan of the New York Times tweeted: “I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed a business owner destroying the core capability of a product as temporarily as Musk. Some other users upload their own fictitious headlines (mocking Musk) to tweets containing stories that now only demonstrate Lede’s image.
X’s plans to roll out this update were first reported via Fortune in August. At the time, Musk demonstrated that the redesign came directly from him and said it would “significantly affect aesthetics. “The Fortune report also states that Musk believes that hiding headlines would “help curb clickbait” and “reduce the height of tweets. “
In recent months, Musk has tried to get more creators and journalists to publish their content directly on the platform. The billionaire even tweeted in August: “If you are a journalist who needs more writing freedom and higher income, publish directly on this platform! “. Earlier this year, Musk suggested MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and former CNN host Don Lemon upload their nightly newscasts directly to the platform, following in the footsteps of ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The attempts Musk’s move to attract top executives The high-profile content creators on the platform are part of his broader push to make news, adding to restrict the platform’s access to Internet sites that Musk has posted publicly. In August, an investigation by the Washington Post found that X had added a five-second delay to links to some Internet sites, according to The New York Times and Reuters added. This situation was reversed after the publication of the Post article.
Earlier this week, Axios reported that major news sites had noticed a significant drop in traffic from Facebook and X over the past year. The report does not mention any express cause for the decline, however, senior social media executives warned that the platforms were placing less emphasis. on this type of content to “risks of scrutiny, negativity or integrity”.
X to start hiding news link headlines as Musk urges journalists to “post directly” on platform (Forbes)