Twitter: links to other networks are now prohibited
Twitter will now ban its users from linking to competing social networks such as Facebook or Instagram, as Elon Musk’s platform has come under fire for suspending the accounts of several journalists. On Sunday, December 18, the platform announced: “Twitter no longer allows free promotion of certain social networks on Twitter.” Seven platforms are affected: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr. Also, “the transition of aggregators to social networks such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio” is shown. For example, tweeting “Thank you for following me @Identifier on Instagram” is prohibited.
Highlighting their latest Instagram photo or Facebook post exposes a Twitter user to account suspension. And if he mentions one of his other accounts in his bio or under his own name, the penalty is the same, the network warns. “If the violation remains an isolated act or a first violation, we may take a number of actions, ranging from deleting one or more tweets to temporarily blocking accounts,” Twitter said in a statement. But violators are warned: “Any repeat violation will result in permanent suspension.”
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These new rules are being announced as many Twitter users have recently said they are considering moving to other platforms, which likely worries the San Francisco-based company’s new boss. The change also caused misunderstanding of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who left in 2021. He soberly tweeted: “Why?”. Mr Musk confirmed his decision after some accounts, including those of investor Paul Graham, were suspended under the new policy. He tweeted that instead of targeting individual tweets, the policy would be limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s primary + purpose is to promote competitors.” He then claimed: “There will be a vote for major policy changes in the future. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Later, he even put his future as CEO of Twitter to a vote by the site’s users. “Should I log out of Twitter?” he tweeted, asking them to click yes or no. “I will respect the results of this poll,” he said, adding that voting was open until Monday morning. Self-proclaimed defender of free speech, Elon Musk’s Twitter moderation rules have raised concerns after being bought by the boss of Tesla and SpaceX for $44 billion at the end of October.
Journalists’ accounts have been suspended
In recent days, he deleted and then restored the accounts of several American journalists, including CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, causing a reaction from the European Union and the United Nations. The vice president of the European Commission even threatened him with sanctions. On Wednesday, the multibillionaire first suspended the @elonjet account that automatically reported the routes of his private jet, then the accounts of journalists who tweeted about the decision, accusing them of putting his family at risk.
These were restored on Saturday, but some said they needed to remove some posts if they wanted to fully use the platform. And on Saturday evening, Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz’s Twitter account was suspended for several hours. “Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account,” the Washington Post technology reporter wrote on his blog. His account was restored on Sunday and he tweeted at 12:38 (17:38 GMT).
The multi-billionaire head of the platform announced on Twitter earlier in the day that it was “temporarily suspended due to the earlier disclosure of personal information of this account.” In his tweet, Eric Weinstein, managing director of Thiel Capital, the investment firm founded by investor and Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel, responded to him on the topic.
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The journalist announced that he asked questions via Twitter for the article he wrote because he could not apply to Elon Musk through traditional channels. “At 20:30 (01:30 GMT) I tried to reach him on Twitter for comment,” he said, adding that “when I went on (to Twitter) to see if he had responded to our request, I was terminated. I I did not receive any information from the company regarding the reasons for my termination or the conditions I violated.”
After Elon Musk took over Twitter, he sent mixed messages and reinstated previously banned accounts, including Donald Trump’s. But he also suspended Kanye West’s message after several posts deemed anti-Semitic and refused to return to the platform of far-right assassin Alex Jones.
