Twitter bans promoting other social media, then reverses course

• Twitter’s policy page was removed hours after it banned users from promoting their social media.
• The platform and Musk were criticized for a move that defied the internet’s free market-style cross-linking.
• Musk appeared to contradict the policy hours after its announcement.

Twitter‘s policy page was removed hours after it banned users from promoting Facebook, Instagram, and Truth Social accounts.

After Elon Musk took over as Twitter’s CEO and reinstated far-right accounts, suspended journalists, and laid off workers, many users began posting links to their accounts on other platforms.

Twitter support: “We know many of our users use other social media.” We won’t allow free promotion of social media platforms on Twitter.

The platform and Musk were criticized for a move that defied the internet’s free market-style cross-linking.

Musk appeared to contradict the policy hours after its announcement, tweeting, “Casually sharing occasional links is fine, but no more relentless advertising of competitors for free, which is absurd.”

By evening, the page with the new policy language disappeared under a “page not found” 404 heading, indicating deleted or moved content. No word if the policy was rescinded. Sunday night, Twitter Support removed references to the social media ban without explanation.

Ironically, the CEO vowed to be a “free speech absolutist.” Musk’s Tesla encouraged fans to visit its Facebook page, according to some. In 2018, he deleted it.

Musk apologized for the abrupt policy change that followed his Oct. 27 takeover. Since then, Twitter has laid off thousands of employees, more than half its workforce, botched user paid verification, and suspended six journalists. Friday night, they returned.

Musk on Sunday revealed a new Twitter poll asking whether he should step down at the platform, something he previously said would happen when the ship is righted and a new chief is sought.

Sunday night, yes led no 56% to 44%. Musk said he’d follow public opinion.

The outside social media policy targeted both the largest platforms and newer ones competing for Twitter’s market share.

“We will remove accounts created solely to promote other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames,” Twitter Support said in a since-deleted tweet.

The policy also banned third-party link aggregators like linktr.ee and lnk.bio, it said, and it would remove users who try to circumvent the rules by spelling out “dot” and sharing screenshots of their handles on banned platforms.

The policy, which would have been Twitter’s biggest change under Musk, was among the most restrictive on what users can post. Other social media companies have few, if any, rules about linking accounts.

Musk said Twitter’s rules changed abruptly without a vote.

“Major policy changes will be voted on,” Musk tweeted Sunday. “Sorry. No repeats.”

It wasn’t clear if Musk was referring to Twitter polls he cited when he reinstated Trump’s account and ended journalist suspensions.

Twitter poll voters self-select. Scientific public opinion research requires randomly selected participants and a large, diverse sample population.

Twitter has never released an estimate of inauthentic and malicious “bots” They can vote in polls.

According to the British Medical Journal’s BMJ Innovations, Twitter polls allow for rapid responses to questions. Twitter isn’t a valid survey method.

Twitter didn’t respond immediately.

After the announcement, Post CEO Noam Bardin tried to attract users.

Bardin tweeted, “We make it easy to add all your social media links to your profile since none of us use just one.”

Other companies subject to the new policy did not immediately comment.

Twitter’s earlier rule change excluded TikTok. According to company insiders and critics, TikTok is owned by ByteDance and controlled by the CPC. Since taking over Twitter, Musk’s cozy relationship with China has been criticized.

Late in 2019, Tesla began manufacturing vehicles in Shanghai, with communist government approval.

Reddit, Twitch, Telegram, WhatsApp, WeChat, Weibo, Parler, and Gab are also exempt.

Musk attended and tweeted from Sunday’s World Cup final. He was pictured with Jared Kushner, former President Trump’s son-in-law and founder of Truth Social.

Twitter has suspended and reinstated some journalists over the past few days after a sudden rule change prohibiting the reporting of real-time location information targeted accounts that revealed the existence of third parties that track Musk’s private jet flights.

The FTC, which oversees anti-competitive company actions, and the EU, which regulates tech company competition, could review the rule. FTC spokeswoman: No comment on Twitter’s new policy.

First-time violators may be required to delete tweets or have their accounts locked; subsequent offenses will result in permanent suspension. Users who violated the policy by linking or mentioning other social media accounts in their bios or account names had their accounts suspended and had to remove the mentions to be reinstated.

Twitter said the rule would have allowed users to cross-post content from other sites and links or usernames to non-banned sites. Users whose accounts were erroneously suspended or locked can appeal, it said.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO, asked “why?” The policy “makes no sense,” he tweeted.

Tech companies criticized the move. Box’s CEO tweeted, “This is sad.” A London-based tech analyst called the move “pathetic.”

Alex Stamos, director of Stanford University’s Internet Observatory and former Facebook CSO, called the new policy “the clearest declaration of weakness from a major US tech platform.”

Paul Graham, a well-known VC, left Twitter because of the rule change. “This is the last straw,” he tweeted, noting his website’s Mastodon link. “Done.”

Later, Graham’s account was suspended.

Taylor Lorenz, a Washington Post tech and online culture columnist who was suspended from Twitter on Saturday night and reinstated, said she “cannot imagine a worse policy if you want content creators on your site.”

“Musk is locking people up,” she told NBC News. “He’s shutting doors to keep people in.”

Lorenz had a pinned tweet promoting her banned accounts on other sites.

When she was reinstated, around the time the company announced the new policy, she deleted the tweet.

On Sunday, many users shared old Musk tweets that appeared to criticize the ban.

In June, he tweeted, “The acid test for any two competing socioeconomic systems is which side needs to build a wall to keep people from escaping?” “That’s it!”

Also Read

Twitter restores banned journalists’ accounts

Some journalist's accounts will be restored. Personal information of him was released...