Published 18 Dec 2022 at 21:43Updated 18 Dec. 2022 at 22:16
Twitter will now ban its users from posting links to competing social networks, such as Facebook or Instagram. And this at a time when Elon Musk’s platform is under fire for suspending several accounts of journalists.
“Twitter no longer allows free promotion of certain social networks on Twitter,” the platform announced on Sunday. Seven platforms are affected: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr. As well as “link aggregators for social networks such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio”, it is specified.
For example, tweeting: “Thank you for following me @Identifier on Instagram” will be banned. Highlighting his latest Instagram photo, or a Facebook post, thus exposes the Twitter user to a suspension of his account. And if he mentions one of his other accounts in his biography or in his name, the penalty is the same, the network warns.
Threat of suspension
“If violations of the rule remain an isolated act or a first violation, we may take a number of actions ranging from deleting one or more tweets to temporarily locking the account(s),” Twitter said. But offenders are warned: “Any repeat offense will result in a permanent suspension”.
These new rules have been announced as many Twitter users have recently said they are considering migrating to other platforms, which most likely worries the new boss of the San Francisco-based company.
The change also raised the misunderstanding of Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, a company he left in 2021. “Why?”, he tweeted soberly.
Moderation rules
Since its takeover of the boss of Tesla and SpaceX at the end of October, for 44 billion dollars, the moderation rules that Elon Musk, self-proclaimed defender of free speech, introduced on Twitter have caused concern. In recent days, he has deleted and then restored the accounts of several American journalists, notably CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post, prompting a response from the European Union and the United Nations. The vice-president of the European Commission even threatened him with sanctions.
Elon Musk has sent mixed messages since taking over Twitter, reinstating previously banned accounts, including Donald Trump’s. But he also suspended Kanye West’s following the publication of several messages deemed anti-Semitic and refused to return to the platform of far-right conspirator Alex Jones.