Twitter users will no longer be able to post links to certain rival social networks, including to Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon, which the company on Sunday called “prohibited platforms.”
The latest decision by the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, is part of a desire to suppress certain speeches. Last week, he suspended a Twitter account named @ElonJet, which tracked his private jet flights.
“We know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms. However, in the future, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social networks on its platform,” the company said in a statement.
Prohibited platforms include mainstream websites such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as emerging rivals like Mastodon, Tribel, Nostr, Post and former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social. Twitter gave no explanation as to why the blacklist included these seven websites, but not others like Talk, TikTok or LinkedIn.
Twitter also now bans third-party social media aggregator links like Linktree, which some people use to show where they can be reached on different social platforms.
Twitter previously took action against one of its rivals, Mastodon, after the company’s Twitter account commented on the controversy surrounding @ElonJet last week. Mastodon has grown rapidly in recent weeks, providing an alternative for Twitter users unhappy with Elon Musk’s redesign. After buying the company for $44 billion in late October, the businessman restored several accounts that broke the rules of Twitter’s former management, including hateful behavior.
Some Twitter users had previously included links to their new Mastodon profile, encouraging their followers to find them on that platform. Such posting is now banned on Twitter, as are attempts to circumvent new restrictions — for example, by writing “Instagram dot com” followed by a username rather than a direct link to a website.
Instagram and Facebook’s parent company Meta did not immediately return a request for comment on Sunday.
Journalist accounts suspended
On Wednesday, Mr. Musk permanently banned the @ElonJet account, and changed Twitter rules to prohibit sharing a person’s real-time location without their consent. He then took aim at journalists covering the story, alleging they were spreading “essentially assassination coordinates”. The saga is also still accessible on other sites, including Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social.
Twitter last week temporarily suspended the accounts of many journalists who covered the platform and its owner, some working for the New York Timesthe WashingtonpostCNN and Voice of America. Several of those accounts were later restored following an online survey by Mr Musk.
Over the weekend, Taylor Lorenz of washington post also had her account temporarily banned from Twitter. The reporter said she and another employee of the daily were looking for an article about Elon Musk. She had tried to communicate with the billionaire, but her attempts had gone unanswered. She then tried to contact him on Saturday by posting a message on Twitter identifying the businessman and asking him for an interview.
The subject of the interview was not disclosed in the tweet, but Ms Lorenz’s post referred to Elon Musk’s comments about an incident earlier in the week involving a “violent stalker” in Southern California. The billionaire had complained about journalists who allegedly revealed the location of his family by invoking the @ElonJet account.
Checking Twitter later on Saturday to see if she had gotten a response from Elon Musk, Taylor Lorenz received a notification that her account was “permanently suspended.”
“I won’t say I didn’t anticipate it,” she said in an early Sunday phone interview with The Associated Press, adding that she hadn’t been given a specific reason for the suspension.
Sally Buzbee, editor of the washington postsaid in a written statement on Sunday that “the arbitrary suspension of another journalist from Post further undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to make Twitter a platform dedicated to free speech.
“Again, the suspension happened without warning, process or explanation – simply because our reporter asked Elon Musk for comment for a story,” Ms Buzbee said. The journalists of Post must be reinstated immediately, without arbitrary conditions. »
By midday Sunday, Ms. Lorenz’s account appeared to have been restored, as had the tweet that she said had triggered her suspension.