Twitter announced on Sunday that it will no longer allow users to include in their posts links to other social networks, the company’s latest policy change under its controversial new owner, Elon Musk.
The move comes after users began encouraging their followers to view your posts on other platformsamid changes at Twitter since Musk, one of the world’s richest men, took control of the company eight weeks ago.
“Going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms,” the network said Sunday in a statement on its website.
He specified that this will affect seven platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribal, Post, and Nostr) as well as social media aggregators such as linktr.ee and ink.bio. Thus, it will be prohibited, for example, to publish “Follow me @username on Instagram,” Musk said.
The user of Twitter feature your latest Instagram photo, or a post from Facebookwill be exposed to a suspension of your account. The blue bird social network provides the same penalty for anyone who mentions their other accounts on social networks in their name or Twitter biography.
Users violating this for the first time will face actions “ranging from requesting the removal of one or more tweets to having the account(s) temporarily banned,” Twitter said. And he warned: “any recidivism will result in a suspension permanente«.
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, questioned the new policy with a one-word tweet: “Why?”
Twitter’s move is the latest in a growing series of controversies Musk has generated since he bought the platform in late October for $44 billion.
In recent days, Musk suspended the accounts of several journalists, most recently this Sunday, of a Washington Post reporter, Taylor Lorenz, after complaining that some had divulged details about the routes of his private plane that could jeopardize To his family.
Also, shortly after taking over Twitter, Musk announced that the site would charge eight dollars a month to verify identities of the account holders. But he had to suspend the disputed “Twitter Blue” plan after an embarrassing spate of fake accounts.
On November 4, when Musk said the company was losing $4 million a day, Twitter laid off half of its 7,500 employees.
Musk also restored accounts suspended by the social network, including that of former US President Donald Trump. But he also canceled that of rapper Kanye West after the publication of variouss messages considered antisemitic. And he rejected the return to Twitter of Alex Jones, founder of the far-right website InfoWars.
The recent suspension of journalists’ accounts (including employees of CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post) has drawn strong criticism, including from the European Union and the United Nations.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which promotes consumer rights and the elimination and prevention of anti-competitive practices, said it was following what was happening on Twitter “with deep concern«.
According to Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee, the suspension of Lorenz’s account “further undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.”
Several of the suspended journalists’ accounts were reactivated on Saturday, though some said they had been told they would have to remove certain posts if they wanted to make full use of the platform.