Elon Musk Removes Headlines From Links Shared on X

X CEO Elon Musk leaves a U.S. Senate bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sept. 13, 2023. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has removed headlines from all website links as part of an effort to improve the site’s aesthetics.

The site now displays links differently by featuring the image from the linked article along with a small text label in the corner indicating the link’s domain.

To access the website, users simply need to click on the image, which closely resembles the appearance of uploaded images on the platform.

The change had previously been confirmed by Mr. Musk himself. “This is coming from me directly,” he posted back in August. “Will greatly improve the esthetics.”

While X has never been a major source of traffic to news websites, the move could potentially negatively affect media organizations that depend on the social media platform for distributing their content.

Since taking over the company in October 2022, Mr. Musk has had a combative relationship with many legacy media organizations, many of whom have criticized him for largely ending the aggressive censorship practices of the former leadership.

Just this week, Rolling Stone magazine published a commentary declaring the company was at “death’s door.” The author, by the name of Miles Klee, said the latest changes would make the app “much more pointless,” and lambasted Mr. Musk for “reinstating right-wing extremists and peddlers of misinformation previously banned from the platform.”

Adapting to Digital Era

Jake Denton, a tech policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times that legacy media must “adapt to the digital era.”

“From the beginning, Elon Musk has always prioritized X’s profitability. Logically, this means retaining users on the platform rather than directing them to external links,” Mr. Denton explained. “This shift may present a challenge for established media outlets accustomed to driving traffic from Twitter to their websites.”

“However, they can adapt by publishing their content directly on X,” he continued. “It’s worth noting that this year has witnessed an increasing trend where the real news is breaking and gaining exclusive coverage on the platform. It’s time for legacy media to adapt to the digital era.”

Mr. Musk, meanwhile, appears to be focused on accelerating the company’s transition into what he has described as an “everything app,” where features such as news gathering, instant messaging, voice and video calls, and payment services are rolled into one.

On Oct. 3, the billionaire entrepreneur claimed he no longer read legacy media outlets, as stories would break on his platform well before a news outlet could write an article on the subject.

“I almost never read legacy news anymore,” he wrote. “What’s the point of reading 1000 words about something that was already posted on 𝕏 several days ago?”