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Twitter users will no longer be able to link to certain rival social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon, which the company called “prohibited platforms” on Sunday.
It’s the latest move by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, to crack down on speech after last week shutting down a Twitter account that tracked his private jet flights.
“We understand 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,” the company said in a statement.
Banned platforms include mainstream sites like Facebook and Instagram, as well as rivals Mastodon, Tribel, Nostr, Post and former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social.
Twitter did not explain why the blacklist included those seven sites but not others such as Parler, TikTok or LinkedIn.
Twitter also prohibits the promotion of third-party social media link aggregators, such as Linktree, which some people use to show where they are on different websites.
Twitter previously took action against one of its competitors, Mastodon, after its main Twitter account tweeted about the @ElonJet controversy last week.
Mastodon has grown rapidly in recent weeks as an alternative to Twitter users who are overhauled by Musk’s $44bn (£36bn) takeover of the company at the end of October and have begun reinstating accounts that have conflicted with the previous Twitter Dissatisfied with the leadership’s rules against hateful acts and other harm.
Some Twitter users added links to their new Mastodon profiles and encouraged followers to find them there. Twitter now bans this, as do attempts to get around the restrictions, such as spelling out “instagram dot com” and usernames instead of direct website links.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Musk permanently banned the @ElonJet account, then changed Twitter’s rules to prohibit sharing someone’s current location without their consent.
He then took aim at journalists who were writing about the Jets’ tracking accounts, which can still be found on other sites, including Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, claiming they were broadcasting “essentially assassination coordinates.” .
Twitter last week suspended the accounts of numerous journalists covering the social media platform and Musk, including those working for the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications. Many of those accounts were restored after Musk conducted an online vote.
Then, over the weekend, Taylor Lorenz of The Washington Post became the latest reporter to be temporarily banned from Twitter.
Lorenz said she and another Post tech reporter were working on an article about Musk. She tried to communicate with the billionaire but got no response, so she tried to reach him on Saturday by posting a message on Twitter tagging Musk and requesting an interview.
No specific subject was disclosed in the tweet, although it was in response to Musk’s tweets earlier in the week about “violent stalkers” in Southern California, and his response to reporters who allegedly leaked his information by citing jet trackers. Complaint account for family location.
When she went back late Saturday to check for a response on Twitter, Lorenz received a notification saying her account was “permanently disabled.”
“I wouldn’t say I didn’t anticipate it,” Lorenz said in a phone interview with The Associated Press earlier Sunday. She said she was not given a specific reason for the ban.
The executive editor of The Washington Post, Sally Buzbee, said in a written statement Sunday that “the arbitrary suspension of another Post reporter further weakens the Claims that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.
“Again, there was no warning, process, or explanation for the shutdown — this time our reporters just solicited Musk’s comment for a story,” Me Buzbee said.
“Post journalists should be reinstated immediately without setting arbitrary conditions.”
By midday Sunday, Lorenz’s account appeared to have been restored, as was the tweet she believed led to her suspension.
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