Well done, Argentina!
Twitter has now banned the sharing of links to other social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Linktree, and Mastodon.
Update: Twitter has flip-flopped and deleted the policy just 12 hours later. Original post follows:
Reeking of Elon Musk’s new “freedom of speech” hogwash, Twitter announced the following:
[…] going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter.
[…] At both the Tweet level and the account level, we will remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms, such as linking out (i.e. using URLs) to any of the below platforms on Twitter, or providing your handle without a URL:
Prohibited platforms:
- Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr
- 3rd-party social media link aggregators such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio
Examples:
- “follow me @username on Instagram”
- “username@mastodon.social”
- “check out my profile on Facebook – facebook.com/username”
Accounts that are used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform may be suspended. Additionally, any attempts to bypass restrictions on external links to the above prohibited social media platforms through technical or non-technical means (e.g. URL cloaking, plaintext obfuscation) is in violation of this policy. This includes, but is not limited to, spelling out “dot” for social media platforms that use “.” in the names to avoid URL creation, or sharing screenshots of your handle on a prohibited social media platform.
Example: “instagram dot com/username”
Of course all this is bullshit and it serves one purpose: the monetization of Twitter links. This is clear from what is not a violation of the new Twitter policy:
Additionally, we allow paid advertisement/promotion for any of the prohibited social media platforms.
Apparently, posting your own domain name is not in violation of Twitter’s policies—yet!
Someone is trying to make that point:
After spending $44+ billion to acquire Twitter, Elon Musk has witnessed his personal fortune plummet along with the value of Tesla stock. Getting paid subscriptions at $8 /month for a blue check mark won’t help sustain the platform’s financial costs.
Update: Twitter has flip-flopped and deleted the policy just 12 hours later.