It's a change in design that could have highly visible consequences. On Tuesday, August 22, Elon Musk confirmed that the platform X − Twitter's new name − intends to overhaul the way news links appear on the timeline. When an article is published on X, as Fortune magazine revealed on Monday, the title and the description of the article will no longer be displayed, but only the main image and the link.
This change, which is allegedly due to "aesthetic" reasons, the X and Tesla boss said, has provoked the ire of news publishers. While the platform is already a limited source of traffic for news sites, X would no longer display one of the elements most likely to interest readers: the headline.
"If you’re a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then publish directly on this platform!" Musk added on Monday, referring to the "revenue-sharing" system introduced in mid-August by X. However, the sums paid out so far to users taking part in this program – whose participation requires a paid X Premium subscription – remain well below the legal minimum wage for almost all accounts, including those racking up several million views per month.
The elements that would no longer be displayed on X are also, apart from photography, those that determine whether a platform must pay neighboring rights to media companies in Europe. Is this a coincidence? Musk seems to have discovered the existence of this legislation after being taken to court by Agence France-Presse, which is demanding that the platform transmit information enabling the news agency to calculate the amount X owes.
On Friday, another decision by Musk provoked heated debate. He announced, without giving a date, that he wanted to remove the block function, except for direct messages on X. Widely used, this option prevents another user of the platform from interacting with you, but also from seeing your messages − a key tool, present on all major social media platforms, in the fight against harassment.
For this reason, the idea was strongly criticized over the weekend, but also because Musk had previously pledged to have X users vote on any major changes to the platform. Whether or not this function will be removed remains uncertain, as it is mandatory for platforms to appear in Google and Apple's online stores.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.