Here’s another tweak Elon Musk has made to X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, which is bound to aggravate people: The site and its apps no longer display the headline for articles that are shared to X.
Back in August, Musk confirmed the change was in the works: “This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics.”
The change will alter the way media companies and publishers share content to X, since without the headline appearing below the image, a post will lack context unless the headline is included as the text of the post (or unless the headline is included in the image shared with the article). Articles shared to X still link back to the original site, by clicking on the featured image. Some X users reported that as of Wednesday they were still seeing headlines displayed in articles in their timeline.
Among other changes Musk has made since he took over Twitter in October 2022: He discarded the Twitter name and logo in favor of X, his favorite letter of the alphabet; updated the verified check-mark program to allow any paying subscriber to get one (and pulled the blue check-marks from celebrity accounts, before restoring many of them just days later); and oversaw mass layoffs eliminating 80% of the company’s workforce. He also recently said that X is “moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the X system” of “a few dollars or something” because “it’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.”
Musk ultimately remains in control of X/Twitter and has said he continues to run the company’s product and technology teams (while also serving as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and overseeing other projects). He hired former NBCUniversal sales boss Linda Yaccarino as CEO, to manage business operations.