Elon Musk is looking to change the format of link posts on X, formerly Twitter. With the change, news articles shared on the platform will no longer display the headlines from articles, instead will only include the lead image and the web link.
Publishers, however, can add their own texts when posting the links which will have to be typed in manually, and images will continue to serve as a link to the article, a report from Fortune said.
The move to change the format appears to be an effort to force journalists to write articles directly on X. “If you’re a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then publish directly on this platform”, Musk said in a post on X.
Removing the headline will also free up space on the timeline, allowing the platform to show users more posts. And, though advertisers reportedly have taken a stand against the change, Musk plans to go ahead with it anyway.
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With the change Musk also expects to reduce outgoing traffic to competing websites and social networks from the platform.
Earlier this month, X started throttling and slowing down traffic to websites and competing platforms using its t.co link shorter to throttle traffic to Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Substack, New York Time, and more.
- The move to change the format appears to be an effort to force journalists to write articles directly on X.
- Removing the headline will also free up space on the timeline, allowing the platform to show users more posts.
- With the change Musk also expects to reduce outgoing traffic to competing websites and social networks from the platform.
