Announced this summer, the change has been in effect since Wednesday October 4: links and press articles shared on the X platform (formerly Twitter) now only appear in the form of an image, without title or description. This change in interface had already been spotted by certain media during a test phase carried out in mid-August. Elon Musk then admitted it publicly: “This comes directly from me. The aesthetics [of the social network] will be greatly improved,” he wrote at the time.
When a user shares a press article, only the name of the media that published it still appears in the lower left corner of the illustrative image, and clicking on the image allows access to the content.
Elon Musk, who bought the social network last year, seeks to encourage users to spend more time on the platform and, therefore, share less external links. The aim is to stem the fall in advertising revenues, which have fallen by more than half in one year, according to figures obtained by the Reuters news agency.
Hostility towards the media
Elon Musk’s hostile attitude towards the media, several of whom have announced that they are withdrawing from the social network, is also notorious. On October 3, Elon Musk said, for example, that he “almost never consults the traditional press,” adding: “What’s the point of reading a thousand words on something that has already been shared on X several days earlier? » In September, the European Commission revealed a study showing that platform high level of false information and disinformation in its publications”.
This change in displaying links to press articles occurs, moreover, while X is required to comply with European legislation on neighboring rights: since 2019, the latter has, in fact, required platforms to pay news agencies as well as newspaper and magazine publishers when they reuse their content. However, the elements which are no longer displayed on X are, with the exception of photography, precisely those which determine whether a platform must pay.
This summer, including in the form of extracts.