Elon Musk's X, Formerly Twitter, Plans to Hide Headlines From News Links — Here's Why

Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, is gearing up to introduce a novel approach to presenting news links, which involves concealing headlines and descriptions. According to Fortune, the platform will display only the link and a header image within a post.

Musk himself confirmed this impending change in a recent post, stating that it was a direct decision from him and that it would significantly enhance the platform's visual appeal.

Twitter Cards

At present, Twitter cards that accompany news articles or blog posts typically exhibit both the headline and a summary text (limited to the web version).

Alongside these, a preview card of a post features the header image. However, the proposed alteration would strip away the headline, presenting solely the image and link in a post.

In effect, this means users would see only the link and image for an article if no accompanying text is included with the link. Sources have revealed that the motive behind this update is to minimize the height of each post, facilitating the display of more posts on a single screen.

Elon Musk's perspective is that the omission of headlines in preview cards could discourage clickbait strategies. However, the absence of a preview card could lead publications or blogs to craft enticing texts alongside the link, encouraging users to click.

Musk also recently suggested that journalists aspiring for more autonomy and improved income should consider publishing directly on X.

X is concurrently in the process of overhauling the user-blocking function with an updated mute feature. This modification will allow users to follow others while restricting the possibility of interaction.

Creator Payout Program of X

In a parallel development, Elon Musk announced a significant reduction in the eligibility criteria for X's creator payout program.

Content creators who have garnered five million impressions in the preceding three months will now qualify for revenue sharing. That represents a substantial reduction from the prior threshold of 15 million impressions.

Moreover, X has revised the minimum payout threshold, enabling creators to withdraw earnings as low as $10, down from the earlier requirement of $50. However, specific prerequisites persist. Creators must possess verified status with at least 500 followers to qualify for payouts.

X has issued an official statement emphasizing its commitment to broadening the monetization opportunities available to content creators via the ad revenue-sharing program.

This statement highlighted the lowered eligibility criteria and the reduced minimum payout as part of an effort to extend participation to a broader array of users. Elon Musk introduced an additional stipulation to the updated guidelines in light of these changes.

He underscored that ad-revenue sharing would exclusively account for impressions originating from verified accounts, voicing concerns about potential misuse and the risk of artificial inflation of view counts via automated bots.