Twitter announced this Sunday (18) that it would suspend or ban users who publish profiles on other social networks. It would no longer be allowed to do “free promotion” of accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and the like, either through tweets or via the link in the profile bio. Link aggregators such as Linktree would also be banned. On the same day, CEO Elon Musk apologized and dropped this policy.
The measure was announced during the World Cup final, while the social network broke engagement records in the match between Argentina and France. “We will remove accounts created solely to promote other social networks and content that contain links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post,” the official Twitter support account said in a post that was deleted🇧🇷
A help article, also deleted, gave more details about the measure. In addition to the aforementioned social networks, the document informed that the ban would also apply to “third-party social media link aggregators, such as linktr.ee and lnk.bio”.
Furthermore, the help article said that “any attempt to circumvent the restrictions (…) for example, through URL cloaking or text obfuscation, violates this policy.”
Musk goes back
After receiving a barrage of criticism, Musk decided to reverse the decision. he explains on twitter🇧🇷
The policy will be adjusted to suspend accounts only when the purpose main one of them is promoting competitors, which essentially falls under the rule prohibiting spam.
In addition, the billionaire guarantees that he will vote with users to decide on major changes to the platform. “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again” he claims🇧🇷
The poll on the policy of links to other social networks is here:
Musk also promised to restore the account of Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, famous startup accelerator in Silicon Valley. The businessman – who supported Musk for some time – criticized the new policy in a tweet to her 1.6 million followers: “This is the last straw. I give up. You can find the link to my new Mastodon profile on my website.”
Since referencing Mastodon was prohibited, Graham’s profile was suspended. Musk said a few hours after “Paul’s account will be restored soon”, which indeed it did.
Users could be banned
Twitter stated that publishing tweets like “follow me on Facebook: facebook.com/tecnoblog” would be prohibited. When this happened for the first time, or when the social network considered that these were isolated incidents, the company could demand the deletion of tweets and temporarily block the account. If the violation occurred again, the account would be “permanently suspended”.
The same would happen in the profile. So if you changed your display name to something like [email protected], or if you put any social network that violates the rules in the bio link, the account will be suspended until the issue is resolved. Repeated violations could result in bans.
Promotions for other social networks would still be allowed, as long as they were paid. In addition, Twitter would continue to allow cross-posting, the practice of republishing the same content on another social network.
Originally published on December 18, 2022.
https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/2022/12/19/twitter-vai-suspender-usuarios-que-divulgarem-perfis-de-outras-redes-sociais/