Elon Musk reveals plans to remove headlines from news articles shared on X

The Tesla CEO confirmed the rumours in a reply to a tweet by X News Daily.

In a move set to reshape how articles are presented on X, the social media giant formerly known as Twitter, the platform is planning to eliminate headlines and textual content from news articles linked in tweets, opting to display only the lead image, as reported by Fortune.

Musk confirmed the news through a reply to a post by X News Daily. He wrote, “This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics."

This transformation entails that all users, from individuals to publishers, will be required to manually append text alongside the links they share on X. Failure to do so will result in tweets displaying only the article's image, with no additional context beyond an overlay of the URL. 

This could be particularly concerning for news agencies that rely on social media to drive traffic to their websites.

Conventionally, a shared article on X consists of an image, a concise headline, and a brief article summary. But with the new development, the platform is aiming to rid the users from using clickbait and superficial headlines for clicks. 

A few days ago, Musk also invited journalists who want “more freedom to write and a higher income”, to directly publish on the platform.