UPDATE 10/5: This is rolling out now. Elon Musk says stripping context from shared links also aims to improve the length of time people spend on X, but it may only fuel more misinformation.
Original Story:Twitter is set to implement a major change to the way news articles are presented on the platform.
As reported by Fortune, the proposed change would remove headlines and accompanying text from tweets that contain links, leaving only the lead image to capture users' attention. The Twitter Card will no longer pull metadata from URLs—like headlines from news stories—leaving it up to the poster to create engaging content.
Elon Musk confirmed the news on Twitter (recently rebranded as X). "This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the [a]esthetics." He didn't say when this will happen; Fortune says it's "currently being tested internally."
An insider source tells Fortune that Musk wants to reduce tweet height in a bid to fit more tweets on the screen. He also anticipates this measure will act as a deterrent against clickbait content.
The change will require all users, whether individuals or publishers, to manually add their own text alongside shared links to provide context. Failure to do so would result in the tweet displaying just an image overlayed with the URL, potentially perplexing users.
Twitter has never been a major source of traffic for publishers, but removing headlines and story summaries certainly won't help engagement.
Twitter Cards date back to 2012, when they were pitched as a way for "partner websites...to present their content in a more engaging way on Twitter."
The move has sparked a mixed response from X users, with some supporting a cleaner design while others expressing frustration over another seemingly pointless change from Musk. He recently said Twitter would remove the "block account" function, for example, though he probably can't do that if he wants the X apps to remain in app stores.