Twitter users will now not give you the chance to connect to some competing social media sites, including what the corporate described on Sunday as “prohibited platforms” Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon.
This is the most recent move by latest Twitter owner Elon Musk to crack down on certain statements after he shut down a Twitter account that tracked his private jet flights last week.
“We know that lots of our users could also be energetic on other social media platforms; nevertheless, in the long run, Twitter will now not allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter,” the corporate said in an announcement.
Banned platforms include major web sites corresponding to Facebook and Instagram, in addition to newcomers Mastodon, Tribel, Nostr, Post and Truth Social of former President Donald Trump. Twitter didn’t explain why these seven sites were blacklisted, but not others corresponding to Parler, TikTok or LinkedIn.
Twitter also bans the promotion of third-party social media link aggregators corresponding to Linktree, which some people use to show where they could be found on various web sites.
Twitter previously took motion against one among its rivals, Mastodon, after its primary Twitter account tweeted concerning the @ElonJet controversy last week. Mastodon has grown rapidly in recent weeks in its place for Twitter users who’re dissatisfied with Musk’s Twitter overhaul since he bought the corporate for $44 billion in late October and began restoring accounts that went against previous Twitter leadership’s policies on hateful behavior and other damages.
Some Twitter users posted links to their latest Mastodon profile and encouraged followers to find them. This is now banned on Twitter, as are attempts to circumvent the restrictions, corresponding to spelling out “instagram dot com” and the username as an alternative of a direct link to the web site.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, didn’t immediately seek comment on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Musk permanently banned the @ElonJet account, then modified Twitter’s rules to prohibit sharing one other person’s current location without their consent. He then targeted journalists who wrote concerning the jet-tracking account, which might still be found on other sites including Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, claiming to broadcast “principally the coordinates of the assassination.”
Twitter last week suspended the accounts of many journalists who cover the social media platform and Musk, including reporters working for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications. Many of those accounts were reinstated after a web-based survey conducted by Musk.
Then, over the weekend, Taylor Lorenz of The Washington Post became the last journalist to be temporarily banned from Twitter.
Lorenz said she and one other Post-technology reporter investigated the Musk article. She tried to communicate with the billionaire however the attempts went unanswered, so she tried to contact him on Saturday by posting a message on Twitter tagging Musk and asking for an interview.
The specific subject was not revealed within the tweet, even though it was in response to Musk’s tweet earlier within the week about an alleged incident involving a “violent stalker” in southern California earlier within the week and Musk’s grievance about journalists allegedly disclosing his family’s location by referring to a jet-tracking account.
When she returned later Saturday to see if there was a response on Twitter, Lorenz received a notification that her account had been “permanently suspended”.
“I won’t say I didn’t foresee it,” Lorenz told The Associated Press by phone early Sunday. She said she was not given a selected reason for the ban.
Sally Buzbee, editor-in-chief of The Washington Post, said in a Sunday written statement that “the arbitrary suspension of one other Post journalist further undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.
“Again, the suspension got here all of sudden, trial or explanation – this time our reporter merely asked Musk to comment on the story,” said Buzbee. “The postal journalists must be reinstated immediately, without arbitrary conditions.”
By noon on Sunday, Lorenz’s account had been reinstated, as was the tweet she believed had caused her suspension.
