Elon Musk’s X Removes Titles From News Links
Elon Musk’s social media platform X has removed headlines from news articles shared by its users, likely straining relations with media groups.
The tycoon has long railed against “legacy media” and argues that X, formerly Twitter, is a better source of information.
However, he said the latest change was for “aesthetic” reasons – news and other links now only appear as images without text.
Musk took over Twitter last year in a $44 billion deal and has since renamed it X, laid off thousands of workers and faced criticism for allowing banned conspiracy theorists and extremists back on the platform, fleecing advertisers.
He has also banned — and reinstated — several journalists with mainstream publications like the Washington Post and CNN, and appeared to delay posts from accounts including the New York Times.
“I almost never read old news anymore,” Musk wrote on Tuesday.
“What’s the point of reading 1000 words about something that was already published on X several days ago?”
– Relationships evaporate –
Some media groups have stopped broadcasting to X entirely due to the increase in hate speech and Musk’s behavior.
AFP and other French news outlets started a lawsuit in early August, accusing X of copyright infringement.
When the link changes were first reported in August, Musk wrote: “This is coming straight from me. Significantly improves aesthetics.”
The changes appear to have been phased in this week.
Instead of seeing the title alongside the image, users now only see the image with a small watermark.
The changes drew a lot of criticism, with editor Tom Warren of The Verge website posting on X: “It’s the latest in a long line of dumb changes on this platform.”
Some users have already commented that it is now difficult to distinguish between news and other information, which may raise questions about the site’s reliability.
In September, the European Commission said that X has a greater relationship with falsehood and disinformation than any other social media platform.
The bitter relationship between media and technology companies is not limited to X.
Both Google and Meta have opposed laws that would force them to pay media companies to display stories.
The changes are having a real impact, as news site Axios reported Tuesday that X and Meta’s Facebook mentions on media sites had plummeted over the past three years.
