December 19, 2022
Musk… what now? 😮💨
This Sunday night, Twitter announced that it will begin to ban its users from posting links to other social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Mastodon. In addition, sharing the usernames on these competing platforms would also not be allowed. For example, including in a message “follow me @username on Instagram”, “username@mastodon.social” or “check out my profile on Facebook – facebook.com/username” would be considered violating this new policy. However, this morning Twitter has changed its mind. Yes. The social media company has deleted all the tweets announcing the policy and the page that detailed the rules. Now Twitter has backtracked in another chaotic turnaround – the Twitter Safety account has posted a poll asking users if the company should form a policy on accounts used just to promote other social networks. Great way of managing business matters and criticism, right? 🙃
BUT we wrote this blog last night, and we still have details of what this new policy would have been. See it for yourself 👇
We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter.— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 18, 2022
As explained by Twitter,
“Twitter is where the public conversation is happening, and where people from all over the globe come to promote their businesses, art, ideas, and more. We know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms; however, going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter.”
This move comes after many users were criticising Musk’s management and instead started to promote their other platforms’ profiles, especially some like Mastodon or Post, which are direct alternatives to Twitter.
This new measure could lead to the suspension of any user who shares content from certain competing platforms, specifically Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr.
As for last night, Elon Musk did not ban YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn or Snapchat. Interesting… 🤔
And that’s not all! Twitter wanted to ban the use of popular tools that allows you to share multiple links on social media, such as Linktree.
But what would have happened if someone did it?
In case of violations of this new policy, Twitter explained that if it is something isolated or a first violation, the user could see deleted tweets or see temporarily blocked access to their account. If users commit any more violations, it would result in a permanent ban. Twitter did also announced that “Accounts that are used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform may be suspended”
BUT, Twitter would have continue to allow ‘cross-posting’, so other platforms could still post content to Twitter, for example when an image is posted on Instagram and the option to share it on Twitter is selected automatically. Smart move, huh? Promotions paid for by any of these social networks would have also continued to be accepted… 🙄
We still allow cross-posting content from any social media platform. Posting links or usernames to social media platforms not listed above are also not in violation of this policy.— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 18, 2022
What will Musk’s next move be? 🤔 Do you want to know if your brand should dump Twitter? Listen to our latest podcast and find out!