X to remove headlines from articles shared on the platform

Elon Musk owned X (formerly known as Twitter) has announced that the site and its apps will no longer display the headline for articles that are shared to X. Back in August, Musk confirmed the change was in the works.  

Musk also has revealed that he’s not a fan of links posted to X, since they drive people off the service and that the platform’s content algorithm deprioritizes links.  

In response to a user who shared data purporting to show a steep decline in referrals to news sites from X and Facebook over the last two years, he posted on Oct. 3, “Our algorithm tries to optimize time spent on X, so links don’t get as much attention, because there is less time spent if people click away.”  

Musk added, “Best thing is to post content in long form on this platform.” 

The change will alter the way media companies and publishers share content to X. Without the headline appearing below the image, a post will lack context unless the headline is included as the text of the post, or unless the headline is included in the image shared with the article. 

 Articles shared to X still link back to the original site, by clicking on the featured image. Some X users reported that as of Wednesday they were still seeing headlines displayed in articles in their timeline. 

Meanwhile, displaying his antagonism toward media outlets, Musk has routinely championed “citizen journalists” posting text, audio and video directly to the platform.  

“Citizen journalism breaks the monopoly held by a handful of editors – they naturally don’t like that,” he tweeted in May.