X to do away with headlines from tweets with links; Musk admits he wants to ‘improve esthetics’
Twitter is undergoing a major overhaul.
Users will no longer be able to see headlines or text on news posts published on the microblogging site, only the lead image and the URL.
Musk also confirmed the news on his Twitter handle. He revealed that this step was being taken to improve the aesthetics as well as the user experience. “This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics,” he wrote. The post went viral, gaining 195K views and 1,204 likes.
According to a report by the business magazine Fortune, other reasons why X is doing away with headlines of news posts include a need to ensure users can view more personalised content on their timelines and are not distracted by clickbait.
Users who want to share the news have to provide a summary or a catchy caption. A source working at Fortune revealed through a tweet that the entrepreneur, didn’t like the fact that so many articles were taking up space. “Elon thinks articles take up too much space. He wants to eliminate any text below the image,” reads the post.
Here's How Twitter Reacted
Netizens were not too happy with the new decision to do away with headlines. “Quit lying. It’s another attack on trusted sources. You can’t have them effectively pushing back against the lies and right-biased narratives you push on here,” wrote a Twitter user.
“Breaking News: «All forms of text-based communication will be ceased,» says Elon Supposedly we will now only be communicating through emojis, gif reactions and memes only. He says «It will help even more with the platform's aesthetic,” quipped another.
Another poked fun at Musk’s decision-making skills. “You don’t have to say it’s coming from you when there’s an absurd update like we already knew that,” they wrote.
