(Reuters) – Elon Musk is seeking to change the way news links appear on the X social network, formerly known as Twitter, in a move that could undermine the ability of news publishers to attract readers.
Musk said in a post Monday evening that X plans to remove the headline and text from links to news articles shared on the site, leaving only the main image.
Fortune magazine first reported the news on Monday, citing a source who said the move was a direct effort by Musk.
The move could be an attempt by Musk to entice users to spend more time on his site and push them to opt for a subscription service to get more details.
It’s not yet clear how the move will affect advertisers on the platform, which Musk said had 540 million monthly users in July.
News links are now displayed to users as “cards” with an image, title of the source, and a brief caption. This method helps attract users to click on links and helps publishers gain readers.
But by using compressed links, users can resort to writing some text with their publications and eventually subscribe to a premium service on the platform that allows the number of characters in a publication to reach 25 thousand.
(Prepared by Towa Muhammad for Arabic Bulletin)
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