MANILA, Philippines – Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, is apparently planning to institute a change that would alter how news articles show up on the social media platform.

Fortune reported on Tuesday, August 22, that X intends to strip away the headline and link text for news articles shared on the service, leaving only an image and the link on a shared article.

9to5Mac, in its report, noted news articles would thus need to have text manually inputted.

As the headline is a good way to convince a person to check out a news link, removing the headline from X posts adds friction for journalists and other content makers to get their work out there, while also making it less attractive for average X users to visit other sites.

The move appears to be an attempt to make journalists write articles directly on X, or at the very least increase dependence on X as a platform for sharing news.

Musk, in a post on X, said, “If you’re a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then publish directly on this platform!”

Musk has previously used his power over X to seemingly stifle competing websites, as the platform delayed access to links to content on the Reuters and New York Times websites as well as rivals like Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram, albeit temporarily. – Rappler.com