By John Ikani
Twitter, formerly known as X is set to revamp the appearance of news links on the platform, marking another change led by owner Elon Musk that will affect news publishers on the site.
Fortune first reported this development on Monday, and Musk later confirmed it in a post, stating, “This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics [sic].”
The platform will now only display the main image from news links, omitting headlines and other text, which will restrict users from previewing the content before clicking.
Presently, news links are presented on users’ timelines as ‘cards,’ accompanied by an image, source address, and a concise headline. This format encourages clicks and assists publishers in attracting readers.
This move could potentially drive users towards signing up for X’s premium service. By having shorter links, users might be more inclined to include additional text in their posts. The premium service permits a single post of up to 25,000 characters.
The impact on advertisers on the platform remains unclear at this point. Musk previously stated in July that the platform had 540 million monthly users.
With these alterations, Musk is positioning X as a more pertinent platform for content creators. Premium subscribers can now share longer videos, have their posts displayed more prominently, and also receive a portion of ad sales.
Since taking over as owner in October 2022, Musk has implemented numerous sudden changes to Twitter, many of which have had adverse effects on the news media, a substantial portion of its user base.
The billionaire has suspended journalists from the platform, stripped many media figures of their verification badges, and endeavored to launch his own journalistic ventures with a project known as the Twitter Files. Through this project, he had reporters publish ‘investigations’ directly on the platform.
In a recent post, he encouraged, “If you’re a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then publish directly on this platform!”
Following his acquisition of the platform formerly known as Twitter, Musk largely dissolved its public relations department and ceased responding to media inquiries from journalists.
Previously, requests for comments were met with a poop emoji.
