X, formerly Twitter, strips headlines from news story links to improve their look

I had not been on X for just a few days but upon returning to the platform, and sharing a post with a link this morning, I was taken aback by the fact that links posted on Twitter now appear as the image included in the article, as well as text in the left-hand corner of the image noting the domain of the link.

This came into effect after the site owner Elon Musk said it would make posts look better by stopping showing headlines for links posted on the site. If users want to visit the page, they must click the image, but it only appears slightly different from how images uploaded to the site appear.

The change was made on Wednesday for iOS and desktop users. The new appearance appeared not to apply to advertisement links. The move to remove headlines had been in the works since August. Following our report about the planned change, Musk tweeted: “This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics.”

Yaccarino has been busy attempting to win back advertisers on the platform, while Musk is promising to turn the messaging and social media service into an app that does much more than it does now, including payments.

Also on Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League said it would resume spending on X after a temporary pause. The civil rights nonprofit had recommended in November that brand advertisers pause their campaigns, a plea that Musk said was responsible for the company’s steep ad drop-off. He went so far as to threaten a lawsuit.

The ADL revealed that it was pausing advertising because it was experiencing a wave of hateful posts. On Wednesday, the group said it’s preparing to resume its ad campaign “to bring our important message on fighting hate to X and its users.”

The ADL reiterated its stance that it did not orchestrate “a boycott of X” or cause “billions of dollars of losses to the company.”

The ADL said in a statement that it appreciates X’s “stated intent over the last few weeks to address antisemitism and hate on the platform” and added that “more needs to be done.”