Twitter Deletes Tweets, Web Page About Ban on Links to Rival Social Networks

Amid pushback on the linking ban from all sides, Elon Musk tweets: ‘Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.’

UPDATE 9:30 p.m. ET: Just kidding? The help center post on the linking policy is now producing a 404 error (here's a cached version(Opens in a new window) from the Wayback Machine), while the initial tweets from Twitter Support have been deleted. Twitter Safety also just posted a poll asking people if the company should roll out a policy it already announced.

Earlier, amid pushback on the linking ban from all sides, Elon Musk tweeted: "Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again."

He also posted a separate poll(Opens in a new window) asking if he should step down as head of Twitter. "Yes" is currently winning there, but there are nine more hours to vote. Some speculated the poll is just a ruse and that Musk has already selected a new CEO, as he said he would(Opens in a new window). Tonight, however, he tweeted: "No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor."

Original Story:
With much of the world focused on the World Cup final this afternoon, Twitter announced that it will ban links to rival social networks.

"We will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter," Twitter Support tweeted(Opens in a new window) this afternoon, adding: "Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post."

Twitter doesn't say how it will determine if an account was created "solely" to promote another service. But in a help center post(Opens in a new window) on the change, Twitter elaborated on content that will run afoul of this new rule, including:

•     “follow me @username on Instagram”

•     “[email protected]”

•     “check out my profile on Facebook - facebook.com/username”

Efforts to bypass this rule—"e.g. URL cloaking, plaintext obfuscation...is in violation of this policy," Twitter says. "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."

Twitter says it will "still allow cross-posting content from any social media platform," without any futher explanation, as well as "paid advertisement/promotion for any of the prohibited social media platforms."

Those who violate the policy will face "a number of actions" for a first offense or isolated incident, "ranging from requiring deletion of one or more Tweets to temporarily locking account(s). Any subsequent offenses will result in permanent suspension."

If the offending links are included in someone's bio or account name, "we will temporarily suspend your account and require changes to your profile to no longer be in violation. Subsequent violations may result in permanent suspension."

That would, of course, affect the Twitter accounts of the rival social media platforms. Facebook's Twitter account(Opens in a new window), for example, currently links to facebook.com/liftblackvoices(Opens in a new window) in its bio, while Instagram's Twitter bio(Opens in a new window) links to its help center. Both accounts obviously link out to Facebook and Twitter URLs in their feeds, too.

Jack Dorsey, meanwhile, has been tweeting links to Nostr after calling for a more open alternative to social networks like Twitter. There's no word on if Twitter plans to suspend its co-founder and former CEO. (On Twitter, Dorsey responded "Why?" to Twitter's initial tweet about the ban, adding(Opens in a new window) "doesn’t make sense" in response to a tweet about Twitter banning Nostr promotion.)

On Twitter, Musk says that “casually sharing occasional links is fine, but no more relentless advertising of competitors for free, which is absurd in the extreme.” But neither he nor Twitter explain what “relentless” or “casually” mean in this context. And since Twitter says the platform will remove “content that contains links or usernames” for the social networks it has singled out, the new policy is causing confusion, to say the least.

Post founder Noam Bardin declined to comment on the ban, though he tweeted that Post users "can post any link" they want.

On Twitter, Mastodon said: “As a company from eastern Germany, we know that building a wall to try and keep people from leaving isn't a good idea.” Facebook responded succinctly with an emoji:

PCMag also reached out to Truth Social and Tribel, and will update this story if they respond. Notably, TikTok is not on the list of banned platforms.

The move comes as Musk has been tangling with reporters over their coverage of his bid to ban the @ElonJet account, which tracks the whereabouts of the CEO's private jet using publicly available data. Twitter recently put in place a ban on posting people's real-time location and subsequently suspended several journalists for posting links to or mentioning the @ElonJet accounts on other platforms, like Facebook and Mastodon.

Those suspensions were lifted this weekend, though Mashable's Matt Binder(Opens in a new window) says on Mastodon that he is once again locked out. The Washington Post's Taylor Lorenz also says(Opens in a new window) she's been permanently banned with little explanation.

The bans are all the more notable given that Elon Musk claims to have acquired Twitter in the name of free speech. "This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead," Musk tweeted on Nov. 28.

It's unclear how quick Twitter will be to remove or suspend accounts; much of its staff has been decimated by recent layoffs and terminations since Musk took control of the social network.

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