Twitter has cracked down on users sharing links from rival social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram as Elon Musk continues to tweak the site.
The social media platform made the announcement during the World Cup final after he purchased Twitter for $44billion (£36bn) in late October.
In an announcement, Twitter revealed that anyone sharing links, or has a username linked to competing social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, will have their accounts locked and even temporarily suspended.
If someone Tweets anything deemed as 'free promotion' for any of the banned competing sites, they will first face Tweet deletion and temporary account locks.
If a competing sites is included in a user's bio or name it will lead to the account being temporarily suspended and them being forced to remove it.
Violations could include the promoting of usernames for sites like Instagram or sharing links to other profiles on Facebook.
The complete list of currently banned sites is: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post.
In a statement, Twitter said: “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.
“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.
“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.”
TikTok and Snapchat were both absent from the banned list.
It isn’t known if to stop the ‘free promotion of certain social media platforms’ Twitter will take any action against the likes of Facebook’s Twitter account, or any other Meta affiliated accounts on the site.
For example, Facebook's main Twitter account has a link to Facebook - which under new rules warrants a temporary suspension until removed.
The new rule means Brits can’t tweet anything like ‘follow me @[username] on Instagram’.
In the weeks since Musk’s takeover, many people had advertised Twitter alternatives like Mastodon and their migration to these sites - doing so now would lead to a ban.
There are worries from some that the new rules will affect people’s businesses, for example local businesses cannot cross-promote themselves on other platforms, and streamers have been left concerned that Twitch links might eventually be included - handicapping their ability to continue streaming and making money.
Similarly, a number of people expressed confusion on Twitter to the new rules and what ‘cross-posting content’ entailed specifically.
The shocking development comes after a rocky few days for Twitter’s owner.
Earlier this week, he banned the Elon Jet account - an account run by a college student that used publicly available information to show where the billionaire’s private jet was landing.
He took the action despite tweeting on November 7 that: “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk”.
After banning it, he promised to take legal action against the university student who ran it.
It was seemingly motivated by an alleged 'crazy stalker' incident that Musk said saw a stranger climb onto the hood of the car carrying his son in. Reports from the Los Angeles Times say that no police report has been filed about the incident.
When a number of journalists for major American media outlets reported on the ban of the Elon Jet account, they too were banned from Twitter for what Musk claimed was “basically assassination coordinates.”
Among those suspended Thursday night were journalists from the New York Times, CNN, Mashable, The Washington Post, and more.
This was because they had, Musk claimed, published personal information about him, seemingly referring to their reporting on the ban of Elon Jet, despite the fact that the data it used is all publicly available and popular flight tracking apps are used by many on a daily basis.
He would later join a Twitter Spaces with a number of journalists who challenged him on the issue before he abruptly left.
Most of the journalists have since been reinstated, but his actions have created an air of concern for some newsrooms over how they go about using Twitter in the future.
Musk’s rule of Twitter has been chaotic so far, and during his time he has overseen thousands of redundancies and a major restructuring of the site that saw him roll out and quickly scrap key features he had promised.
