Elon Musk-owned microblogging social platform X (formerly called Twitter), has removed story headlines and links to articles shared on the platform.
Links posted on X now appear as the image included in the article, as well as text in the left-hand corner of the image noting the domain of the link.
Several users have expressed concerns that the recent development will only make it tough to understand what a content is about, until they click it which can often be unnecessary.
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Check Out some Users reaction;
@SheldonTarpey wrote,
“I really dislike how unclear it is whether something is an article or an image now. I feel like this was designed to generate more clicks and show X as a better traffic driver than it actually is. Obvs this will all still show up in the dwell time and bounce rate but still”.
@MikeJViggiano wrote,
“It is much cleaner it just is frustrating that I now have no idea what I am or am not opening. 90% of twitter for me is scrolling for articles and that makes this much more challenging”.
@MarvinDigeorgio wrote,
“Musk doesn’t want people to read actual news, so he removed news links and headlines to reduce the possibility that they will. Musk is a right-wing propagandist. Disinformation is his tool”.
@journeyman56 wrote,
“I’m wondering how this will impact traffic for news sites? Also, what’s the motivation? In some ways it encumbers brands and messaging and news voice but in others, might open up more traffic via curiosity? I admittedly thought it was just a picture until I clicked”.
The change was made on Wednesday for iOS and desktop users, while Android and the website continue to show the headline alongside the image.
The move to remove links and headlines of articles on the X platform has been in the works since August this year, when Musk announced the move in an attempt to drive up subscription of the app’s premium service.
However, Musk said the latest change was for “aesthetic” reasons, as news and other links now appear only as pictures with no accompanying text.
Announcing the change, Musk wrote,
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1693843680904216619?s=46&t=5SnxbL3wcwgpHjfK1_oo8g
“This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics [sic]”.
Musk has reportedly been focusing on boosting engagement on the platform, and in an attempt to do so, he has been asking users to post more content on X.
He has also urged journalists to create their brand and post directly to X and earn revenue through the platform, which could be another reason for him to remove links shared on the platform that could take users away to a different website.
There are speculations that the move may be an attempt to drive people to sign up for X’s premium service. With the shortened links, users could be inclined to include more text along with their posts. The premium service allows a single post of up to 25,000 characters.
It is however not clear how these changes will affect advertisers on the platform, which Musk claimed in July had 540 million monthly users.
With the changes, Musk is pitching X as a more relevant platform for content creators as he gears towards making the platform an everything app.