Musk Pushes Plan to Alter How News Links Appear on Social Media Site X

Move by billionaire could undermine ability of news publishers to attract readers.

Elon Musk is pushing for changes in how news links appear on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in a move that could potentially undermine news publishers' ability to attract audiences.

X is considering removing the headline and text whilst keeping only the lead image from links to news articles posted on the platform, Musk announced late on Monday. Fortune had first reported the news on Monday, citing a source stating the move was directly pushed by Musk.

The action is likely an attempt by Musk to get users to spend more time on X and encourage them to opt for the subscription service for further details. It is not immediately evident how the move will affect advertisers on the platform that Musk claimed in July had 540 million monthly users.

At present, news links appear on the timeline of users as "cards" along with an image, source address and an abbreviated headline. Such presentation helps attract clicks and assists publishers in gaining readers. But with the shortened links, users might end up writing some text along with their posts and eventually they could consider X's premium service that permits a single post of up to 25,000 characters.

With the changes, Musk is promoting X as a more relevant platform for content creators. Premium subscribers can now post longer videos, their posts are displayed higher up and they also get a cut of ad sales.

Musk wants to change how news links appear on X, removing headlines and text.
Move could undermine ability of news publishers to attract readers.
Part of Musk's push to get users to spend more time on X and subscribe.

Source: Reuters

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