After Elon Musk last month decided to banish article headlines from posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, he’s bringing them back — but in a different format.
In early October, Musk said the removal of headlines under posts of links on X would “greatly improve the esthetics.” On Wednesday, the tech mogul said, “In an upcoming release, X will overlay title in the upper potion of the image of a URL card.” He noted in a follow-up that the headlines would appear overlaid on the image of an article, not below it: “Every pixel matters,” Musk wrote.
Musk’s move to cut article headlines has changed the way many users share articles on X, because those have lacked context unless the headline is included in the text of the post (or the headline is included in the image shared with the article). In the past, Musk — who controls all decisions at X and heads up product and engineering — has said he dislikes links posted to X because they drive people off the service. He has said the platform’s content-ranking algorithm deprioritizes links.
Separately, Musk is dealing with an exodus of major advertisers, including Disney, IBM, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony, Comcast and NBCUniversal, and Lionsgate. Those marketers suspended ad spending after Musk endorsed a post on X pushing the antisemitic replacement theory and following reports by activist group Media Matters that found ads appeared next to pro-Nazi and white nationalist posts.
In response, X filed a lawsuit against Media Matters, alleging the group was waging a “blatant smear campaign” against Musk and X using manipulated research. Media Matters called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said the organization “stands behind its reporting and looks forward to winning in court.”
