Twitter recently banned all its users from posting links to social media platforms owned by its competitors, including the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and many more.
However, after facing severe backlash and criticism, the micro-blogging platform decided to silently remove the detailed page regarding the above ban from its privacy policy.
Elon Musk-owned Twitter’s journey has been full of bumps and backfiring events. The latest chapter in the series is Twitter’s decision to ban users that post an external link to other social media platforms.
Twitter’s suspension of the account of the rival social media platform Mastodon sparked the row.
Elon Musk tweeted that they’re adjusting the policy to suspend accounts if the primary motive of the account is to promote a competitor. He also added that it would consider the act a violation of the spam rule.
However, Musk and Twitter are facing severe backlash over the recent policy changes regarding the ban, especially when Twitter is reinstating the accounts of controversial users like Andrew Anglin.
Which Links Did Twitter Block?
As per an official tweet from the Twitter Support handle, the Twitter ban currently includes links that promote Facebook, Instagram, Truth Social, Mastodon, Nostr, Tribal, and Post.
They also disabled third-party link redirection tools like Lnk.Bio and Linktree — tools that are very prominently used by content creators and businesses across various social media platforms.
Twitter also said on its policy page that it acknowledges that its users may be active on other social media networks. However, they also specified that they would no longer allow free promotion of some social media networks on Twitter.
They further added that Twitter would ask its users to delete any link redirecting to other social media platforms.
If the user is found to violate the policy multiple times, Twitter might also temporarily lock such user accounts. The mention of any such link in the user bio would also lead to the temporary suspension of the user account, and the user will be asked to change the bio.
However, the interesting part of the whole story is that Musk-led Twitter would let you post links to other social media sites, including your handles if you pay for the promotion of the tweet.
Twitter Also Suspended the Accounts of Journalists
On Saturday, Twitter also suspended the user account of a journalist from the Washington Post named Talyor Lorenz. The ban came following Lorenz’s deletion of all her previous posts except for three.
Two of the posts were deemed to promote her other social media handles, while another was seeking Elon’s comment on the story, which she was working on with a fellow Post writer — Drew Harwell.
Besides Lorenz’s account, Twitter also banned the accounts of Harwell from the Post, Ryan Mac from the New York Times, and Donie O’Sullivan from CNN.
The accounts mentioned above were supposedly blocked for commenting on how Twitter banned Mastodon’s account for connecting to the Elon Jet Mastodon account.
Interestingly, Musk made a poll post for the users to decide the fate of the accounts of banned journalists. Luckily, the results favored the journalists, and Twitter reinstated Mastodon’s account and the accounts of all the journalists.
What remains to wonder about is that the controversial banning policy didn’t exist when Taylor Lorenz posted tweets linked to her handles from other social media sites, yet her account was suspended.
Twitter, however, reinstated her account as well, along with those of the other journalists.