The owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, has said news shared by media platforms will no longer show headlines as he wants to keep users on the platform.
Musk, who has consistently attacked the “legacy media” and touts X as a better source of news than the media, wants users to spend more time on the platform through policy.
Already, X has started cutting headlines from link cards on the iOS app and on the web. This means that readers will see just an image with the domain name of the link on the bottom left, which is easy to miss.
Direct post on X
The move is part of Elon Musk’s efforts to get users to post “long-form content” directly on the platform. Musk believes that clicking on news headline on X takes people away from the platform.
Musk also sees X as a direct competitor to legacy media, hence, wants to limit media platforms using it to direct traffic to their websites.
Musk on Thursday celebrated the decision with a post suggesting that traffic on media websites is already declining.
“Traffic to legacy media websites keeps declining, while X rises,” he posted.
Traffic to legacy media websites keeps declining, while X rises
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2023
Old Twitter gives way
Musk took over Twitter last year in a $44 billion deal and has since renamed it X, sacked thousands of staff and drawn criticism for allowing banned conspiracy theorists and extremists back on the platform, sending advertisers fleeing.
The billionaire has also introduced series of changes which has totally detached the platform from its former self under the leadership of co-founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey.
Based on the massive changes, Reuters reported Wednesday that X’s revenue has declined each month by at least 55% year-on-year after Musk took over the company.
The company has faced challenges in retaining advertisers for the platform. However, in a recent interview, the CEO of the social media company, Linda Yaccarino shared that advertisers are returning to the platform and have claimed that the company will be profitable next year.
