X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter has announced changes to the way news articles are shown on the app.
According to the social platform’s update, this will limit a user’s ability to see the full contents of the news post before clicking.
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter has announced changes to the way news articles are shown on the app.
This is the latest development in a series of technical changes made since billionaire, Elon Musk took over ownership of the platform. The update has officially been sanctioned by Musk as he reposted the information from the unofficial “X News Daily” account.
“This is coming from me directly, and will greatly improve the esthetics,” Musk said.
According to the update, X will no longer show headlines and associated text when links are posted from news websites. This will limit a user’s ability to see the full contents of the news post before clicking.
Currently, when news articles are displayed on the app, a user will see a preview card that shows the link, the headline with a little intro to the news article, and the feature image.
When the changes are effected, only the link and the feature image will be seen by users on the preview card.
An interested user can only get to read the article just by clicking on the image which automatically takes the user to the publisher’s website. This may be part of the platform’s plan to drive traffic to publishers as the app earlier announced it will allow publishers to charge a certain fee for reading their articles.
Recall Musk had announced in April this year, that X will allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with one click, calling it a win for both the public and media organizations. Musk had also, recently called on media practitioners to come on board promising higher income and writing freedom.
“If you’re a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then publish directly on this platform!” Musk said.
The Guardian also suggested the new development may be the app’s plan to channel traffic to its premium service which would see a lot of users pay more to access more options.
When this update rolls out, publishers who use the platform may be forced to subscribe to the app’s premium service so they can have access to add longer, explanatory texts to go along with their posts. The premium service allows a single post of up to 25,000 characters.
Apart from the longer texts, users who sign up for the premium service also post longer videos, have more visibility for their posts plus a good share of ad revenue.
