A new rule will, once again, shake up the planet Twitter. Billionaire Elon Musk’s platform announced in a statement that it is now prohibited to post links to several competing social networks in its Tweets. “Twitter no longer allows free promotion of certain social networks on Twitter,” the statement said, noting that Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr are affected, as well as “links to social networks like linktr.ee, lnk.bio”.
For example, it becomes prohibited to tweet: “Thank you for following me @ID on Instagram”. Users who violate this policy risk account suspension: “If rule violations remain an isolated act or first violation, we may take a number of actions ranging from removing one or multiple tweets until account(s) temporarily locked,” Twitter details. But “any repeat offense will result in permanent suspension,” the platform warns.
Tweets are not the only ones to be affected by this new policy, since the biography and the name of the user cannot contain a link either, under penalty of temporary or even permanent suspension.
Elon Musk, who recently bought Twitter for $44 billion, is a staunch defender of free speech. However, in recent days, he has deleted and then restored the accounts of several American journalists, CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post in particular. This has caused concern in the European Union and the UN, and the Vice-President of the European Commission has even threatened him with sanctions.
