Twitter deleted on Sunday the tweets announcing the company’s decision to block users from sharing links to several other social networks after backlash, and also took down the web page detailing the controversial new policy.
The list of banned social media platforms included Facebook, Instagram, Truth Social, Mastodon, Tribal, Post, and Postr. The new rules also banned portfolio-sharing services such as Linktree and Lnk.Bio, which are used by a number of creators and business to showcase their work online. Users could no longer post links to their profiles on any of the social networks mentioned above, as the troubled company decided to halt “free promotion of specific social media platforms”. But the absence of TikTok, one of the biggest rivals in the tech industry, from the list raised many eyebrows.
“We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms,” Twitter Support stated in a series of now deleted tweets. “However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter.” The company added it would allow cross-posting from different platforms, but content directing users to other social networks through given links would constitute a violation.
Paid promotions of the banned accounts, however, was still allowed. In case of violations, Twitter would remove the tweets carrying links to rival social networks and could even temporarily suspend holders of the violating accounts. Getting around the new restrictions (including by spelling out “dot” instead of “.” or sharing screenshots of profiles) would also result in strict action, Twitter added.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey remarked the new policy “doesn’t make sense”.
After it was silently rolled back, Twitter Safety started a poll asking users whether there should be a policy “preventing the creation of or use of existing accounts for the main purpose of advertising other social media platforms”.
Should we have a policy preventing the creation of or use of existing accounts for the main purpose of advertising other social media platforms?
— Safety (@Safety) December 19, 2022
Earlier, Twitter abruptly suspended the accounts of several journalists who covered the new owner Elon Musk. They included Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, New York Times’ Ryan Mac, and CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, who were suspended for what Musk believed was the violation of Twitter’s new location sharing policy. The roundly criticised series of suspension started with another Post journalist Taylor Lorenz, who had shared links to her accounts on other social media platforms. The suspended journalists were reinstated after Musk held a poll to decide their fate on the website. The new locations policy had not been rolled out when Lorenz’s account was banned, however.
Musk says, “Twitter should be easy to use, but no more relentless free advertising of competitors. No traditional publisher allows this and neither will Twitter.”
The billionaire, since his high-profile $44 billion takeover, has been grabbing the headlines for all the wrong reasons at Twitter. Mass firings, erasure of key human rights and content moderation teams, dissolution of the safety council, a spate of resignations, and demands for a hardcore cultural reset are some of the highlights that have entrenched Musk’s position at the firm as one of the most controversial. The billionaire has even polled his followers as to whether he should step down as head of Twitter.
The poll recorded over 14 million votes as of Monday, December 19. The results have yet to be announced.
