Emmanuel OchayiElon Musk, the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, has declared that news shared on the platform will no longer feature headlines.
Musk’s aim is clear as he wants to keep users firmly within the bounds of his revamped social media empire.
On his X account, Musk stated, “We’re cutting headlines from link cards on the iOS app and the web. What you’ll see now is a simple image with the domain name of the link, discreetly placed at the bottom left corner.”
This shift is part of Musk’s larger strategy to encourage users to post “long-form content” directly on X. He believes that clicking on external news headlines takes people away from his platform, and he sees X as a formidable competitor to traditional media. Consequently, he intends to limit media platforms from using X to redirect traffic to their websites.
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Musk celebrated this decision with a triumphant post on X, declaring, “Traffic to legacy media websites keeps declining, while X rises.”
Since taking over Twitter and transforming it into X, Musk has introduced sweeping changes, including mass layoffs, the return of banned users, and a departure from its roots under co-founder Jack Dorsey’s leadership.
These changes have had a significant impact, with Reuters reporting a monthly revenue decline of at least 55% year-on-year since Musk assumed control.
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Despite facing challenges in retaining advertisers, X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, remains optimistic. In an interview, she claimed that advertisers are returning to the platform, forecasting profitability for the company in the upcoming year.
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