X stops showing headlines on posts with links to articles

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

X, the site previously known as Twitter, has started to remove headlines and other metadata from news articles and other content linked to in posts made to the platform.

Previously, X (and Twitter, when it went by that name) would automatically create a “card” when users posted a URL. Layouts varied slightly over time and from device to device, but this typically included an image, headline and site domain name, all of which were clickable and would take the user to the full version of the story hosted on the publisher’s page.

Publishers could also provide Twitter or X with a line of text to use alongside the headline or title of the article in select views.

Of course, this meant that traffic was being directed off Twitter or X and publishers essentially had full control over the post-click experience and any potential ad or subscription revenue.

X’s move appears to be part of a broader crackdown by both X and Meta, the owner of Facebook, to reduce off-site clicks and keep users engaged on the platform itself and potentially allowing it to serve more ads and control the overall experience.

As of this writing, Twitter has removed the “cards” format from all posts that it determines links to an article — including old ones — in favor of just the text of the post, an image and a small label with the site’s domain name.

In most views, the full URL included with the post text is also parsed out, but Twitter and X had been doing that for some time.

X appears to still be pulling the image from the metadata on compatible sites — or attempts to determine what image to use automatically.

The result is a layout that’s not as obviously clickable and instead looks more like a photo post.