Twitter bans promotion of accounts on other social media sites
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 2 years ago • 67 commentsBy: Julianne McShane, Jason Abbruzzese and Ezra Kaplan
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Twitter will no longer allow users to promote their accounts on at least seven other major social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, it announced Sunday.
The new policy comes after many users recently began posting links to their accounts on other sites following Elon Musk's takeover as CEO of Twitter and its subsequent reinstatement of far-right accounts, suspension of journalists and mass layoffs.
"We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter," Twitter Support tweeted Sunday.
"Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post," the post continued.
The policy will also ban third-party link aggregators, including linktr.ee and lnk.bio, it said, adding that it will also seek to remove users who try to circumvent the rules by spelling out "dot" and sharing screenshots of their handles on prohibited platforms, among other means to get around the restrictions.
The policy, the most significant change to Twitter under Musk, is among the most restrictive of any social media platforms' policies in how it limits what users can post. Other social media companies have few, if any, rules about users' posting links to their accounts on other platforms.
A few hours after the policy was announced Sunday, Musk appeared to contradict it in a tweet that said, "Casually sharing occasional links is fine, but no more relentless advertising of competitors for free, which is absurd in the extreme."
Musk also apologized for the abrupt policy change that followed weeks of tumult since his Oct. 27 takeover. Since then, Twitter has laid off or seen the exoduses of thousands of employees, more than half its workforce, botched introduction of paid verification for users and suspended a half-dozen journalists. They were reinstated late Friday.
"Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes," Musk tweeted Sunday. "My apologies. Won't happen again."
It wasn't clear whether Musk was referring to the results of Twitter polls, which he cited when he reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump and ended the suspensions of the journalists' accounts.
The polls are straw polls, meaning they are informal and not akin to scientific public research into the wishes of a defined population.
Twitter has never released an estimate of the number of inauthentic and malicious automated accounts (or "bots") on the platform. Those accounts can vote in polls.
Twitter did not immediately respond to questions.
The CEO of Post, Noam Bardin, tried to draw users to the site after the announcement.
"We make it easy to add all your social media links to your profile since none of us only use one platform," Bardin tweeted, adding "Freedom = Choice."
The other companies subject to the new policy also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Twitter's rule changes left out some major social media platforms, most notably TikTok. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and is ultimately controlled by the Communist Party of China, according to company insiders and critics. Musk has been increasingly called out for his cozy relationship with China ever since he took over Twitter.
Reddit, Twitch, Telegram, WhatsApp, WeChat, Weibo and the right-wing platforms Parler and Gab are also exempt from the new policy.
Twitter announced the change during Sunday's final of the World Cup, which Musk attended and tweeted from. He was pictured sitting near Jared Kushner, a son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, who founded Truth Social, which was part of the rule change.
The new rules add to what has been a particularly chaotic stretch for the company and its new owner, with Twitter having suspended and reinstated some journalists over the past few days after a sudden rule change that targeted the dissemination about the flights of private jets.
The rule could come under governmental scrutiny, including from the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees potential anti-competitive company actions, and the European Union, which has rules about how tech companies compete with one another. A spokeswoman said the FTC had no comment on Twitter's new policy.
First-time violators of the new rule may be required to delete tweets or may have their accounts locked, and "any subsequent offenses will result in permanent suspension," Twitter said. Users who violate the policy by linking or mentioning other social media accounts in their bios or account names will have their accounts suspended and will be required to remove the mentions to be reinstated.
The new rule will still allow users to cross-post content from other sites, as well as links or usernames to social media sites that are not subject to the ban, the company said. Users who believe their accounts have mistakenly been suspended or locked can appeal, Twitter added.
Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey questioned the move, responding to the thread explaining the new policy with "why?" In another tweet, he said the policy "doesn't make sense."
Others in the tech industry also criticized the move. Aaron Levie, the CEO of the cloud storage company Box, tweeted, "This is just sad." Benedict Evans, a London-based tech analyst, tweeted that the move was "absolutely pathetic."
The director of Stanford University's Internet Observatory, Alex Stamos, a former chief security officer for Facebook, tweeted that the new policy is "the clearest declaration of weakness I've ever seen from a major US tech platform, and a transparent declaration of anticompetitive intent."
Paul Graham, a well-followed venture capitalist, said the rule change had pushed him to leave Twitter. "This is the last straw," he tweeted, noting that a link to his account on Mastodon was on his website. "I give up."
Graham's account was suspended hours later.
Taylor Lorenz, a Washington Post tech and online culture columnist who was suspended from Twitter on Saturday night after she tweeted at Musk seeking comment for a story and has since been reinstated, said she "cannot imagine a worse policy if you want content creators to come on your site."
"People don't want to be locked in a jail and that is what Musk is doing," she told NBC News. "He's closing the doors and trying to keep people in."
Lorenz previously had a tweet pinned to her profile promoting her accounts on other sites, including some that are now banned. But as soon as she was reinstated, which was right around the time the company announced the new policy, she took the tweet down, she said.
Musk had not yet addressed the change as of Sunday afternoon, but many users were passing around previous tweets from him that could be seen as criticizing the new policy.
Most notably, one of his tweets from June read: "The acid test for any two competing socioeconomic systems is which side needs to build a wall to keep people from escaping? That's the bad one!"
Tags
Who is online
422 visitors
Wink, wink... say no more, say no more, LOL!
Yup, there it is.
"we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter," Twitter Support tweeted Sunday."
I have a feeling they were never allowing that.
But they do allow other sites.....
Just not potential competitors?
As I said before, Vic, Elmo knows people are leaving Twitter in droves and people are talking about alternatives.. He just doesn't want people to know about the competition or having the competition advertised on Twitter. Nothing wrong with it, nothing illegal about it but it does make him a massive hypocrite for suppressing free speech...something he professes to covet.
Oh that's right, you once had a following over there for simply calling Trump names.
I'm not interested in whether Twitter lives or dies. I want those in the FBI who colluded with Twitter held accountable for violating the 1st Amendment.
Once had?
LOL
Still have..
First Amendment doesn't apply to Twitter, (Google, UNtruth social, Mastadon, Facebook, etc..) or any other privately owned company. If it did, Elmo would be fucked for violating it.
Sorry Bubba, you don't get it both ways.
But it does to the FBI as a government entity.
Sorry Bubba, you don't get it both ways.
Neither do you.
And BTW, it's Vic to you.
Meaning what exactly?
They didn't, according to the same "Twitter Files" that Fox News is lying about.
You will never get an answer to that question
No problem for me.
Fine with me.. At this point, Elmo is trying to stop the bleeding by forbidding the mention of the competition. It won't help, the damage is done. I am near 20k followers on Twitter so I will be staying, but...I have started accounts on Post and Trible.
that clown is the proverbial monkey with a machine gun...
what a great picture that creates in my mind
lol
Poor Elon, the newest punching bag and villain of the left. He's getting a lot of flak, so he must be over the target.
Poor Elon? The newest hero of the right and 'we' are well aware of the right's bandwagon approach to choosing le clown du jour.
He may be a bit surprised about the results. Maybe all the snowflakes that said they were leaving Twitter never actually left. I have not heard anything of a timeline if the vote came back that he should leave. Maybe he will use the same timeline all the celebrities that said they would move out of the USA if Trump won in 2016 yet are still here.
People are leaving, I've lost 800 follows in the last few weeks and I am not the only one by a long shot. A friend I have on Twitter lost 20,000 followers in one day but then he has 337,000 followers.
And before you start spitting out the, "snowflake" tag, I would remind you that a LOT of Nutters swore to leave the USA if Obama won...none actually did, (Rush Limbaugh was one).
I hope they open more safe spaces to help people with any self esteem issues if they are losing followers or not getting enough retweets or whatever is important to them.
Although I never said being a snowflake was exclusive to one group it seems that one group holds a sizeable advantage in snowflakery.
Indeed, Nick Adams (Beta Male) spends his days dick riding trump and whining.....every single day. He sure could use a safe space and by the looks of it, trump needs one too, where he can air his laundry list of grievances. Me? Lost a few follows, gain a few, all good with me. If people want to hear what I have to say, great, if not, that's fine too... Part of that whole free speech thingy.
well, technically...
I remember the tax consultant / preacher who said he would take himself to Belize along with his internet companies,
He left briefly then reregged for a while, quit eventually, never moved to Belize.
Exactly....
LOL
psssttt...who?
can't remember the name, just the scary avatar.
sort of like Santa with an Amish hat.
... he was fun to provoke. that f'n religious wacko had a short fuse.
I know who you are talking about. I wonder what happened to him now that you mention whackos
that wasn't Ron was it?
No, not the beer belly paratrooper, lol.
LFoD?
the NT version of john brown...
That is him!
Yeah...I don't miss him
I meant RonW NJP's boyfriend
Yep he claimed to be a paratrooper at some point.
Well, RonW's avatar was a selfie of him wearing a black leather harness.
I ridiculed his avatar by complimenting him for having the courage to show off his cute little black bra.
He insisted that it was a harness (not a bra).
So I posted a picture of a gay S&M couple wearing similar black leather harnesses.
I complimented him for having the courage to model his gay S&M outfit.
RonW changed his avatar. He was one of the worst trolls on NV.
I enjoyed trolling the troll with compliments.
Musk said he would follow the poll that he posted asking if he should quit as the head of Twitter. The poll was in favor of him leaving, let's see if he does it or not.
Whatever...
He'll still be the owner and chief decision maker.
I got a jelly donut that says he won't
YES!!!
Snoop should run twitter
Agreed!
The poll was about whether he should step down from being the "CEO" of Twitter.
Butt if the poll goes against him, he can do the Trump whine.
He can claim the poll was "rigged".
Or he can always create enough bots to vote for him to remain CEO.
He now says he is stepping aside as soon as he can find someone nuts enough to be his CEO
but he will still be in charge of "software and engineers".
I'm holding onto my jelly donut for now
Now I want a jelly donut
Well there is another 2 or three days of fodder for the viewers of CNN and MSNBC
And your list is WAY more interesting than anything going on over at Twitter
Nothing new there. That was a forgone conclusion. I am sure Elon news will be right back on top.
Twitter's ban on linking to other social media was deleted about 13 hours later.
Too much backlash from those who complained rather than those who simply tried to
delete their accounts.
Not everything works like it used to because those engineers are long gone,
probably worrying about whether Elon will keep his word about their severance pay...
Elon must like pinball machines, the ball is the always the center of attention
and changes direction frequently. /s
Elmo bit off more than he can chew...
it seems continuously hearing the word no is proving to be difficult at this stage of his arrested adolescence.
Now a user of Twitter who is actually paying for the blue check mark suggested that only paying
customers should be allowed to vote,
Musk agreed to "change that".
Yes.
Paying $8 for a fucking blue check mark is proof that the buyer IS a fucking "mark".
Musk and Fox News keep perpetuating the lie that the FBI paid Twitter to stifle the news stories for team Biden.
The so-called Twitter Files that Musk himself released indicate otherwise.
It is common practice everywhere to process FOIA requests at the expense of the party requesting the information. It says right in the "Twitter Files" that the income from the FBI was reimbursement for research and FOIA requests.
Cannot convince the "Told/you/so" crowd, lol, too many conspiracy theorists.
that story and the open border story are alternating on wingnut radio stations, while nary a peep about the historical criminal referrals of the leader of their republican party.
If projection, deflection and denial were criminal offenses, some folks on NT would be in prison for life
according to some I imagine it isn't 'news worthy'