Twitter stops promotion of Facebook, Instagram links on its platform (Updated)

(Update: After the criticism of this new policy, Twitter has silently deleted the tweets announcing the policy that stopped the promotion of specific social media links and handles on its platform. It has also deleted the policy altogether.)

Elon Musk has now tweeted that the “policy will be adjusted to suspending accounts only when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors, which essentially falls under the no spam rule.” Twitter Support has also started a poll asking “Should we have a policy preventing the creation of or use of existing accounts for the main purpose of advertising other social media platforms?”

Should we have a policy preventing the creation of or use of existing accounts for the main purpose of advertising other social media platforms?

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) December 19, 2022

Here is the original post

Twitter has announced that it will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on its platform. The social media platform specifically referred to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr in a policy it rolled out on Sunday.

Twitter also says that henceforth, it will “remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms, such as linking out (i.e. using URLs) to any of the below platforms on Twitter, or providing your handle without a URL” This specifically refers to 3rd-party social media link aggregators such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio.

It cited examples of violations below: 

• “follow me @username on Instagram”
• “username@mastodon.social”
• “check out my profile on Facebook – facebook.com/username”

The social media platform says that accounts used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform may be suspended. It also says that:

“Additionally, any attempts to bypass restrictions on external links to the above prohibited social media platforms through technical or non-technical means (e.g. URL cloaking, plaintext obfuscation) is in violation of this policy. This includes, but is not limited to, spelling out “dot” for social media platforms that use “.” in the names to avoid URL creation, or sharing screenshots of your handle on a prohibited social media platform.”

Here is what will happen if a user violates this policy

Tweet deletion and temporary account locks

• If violations of this policy are an isolated incident or first offense, we may take a number of actions ranging from requiring deletion of one or more Tweets to temporarily locking account(s). Any subsequent offenses will result in permanent suspension.

Temporary suspension

• If violations of this policy are included in your bio and/or account name, we will temporarily suspend your account and require changes to your profile to no longer be in violation. Subsequent violations may result in permanent suspension.

If you believe that your account was locked or suspended in error, you can submit an appeal.

The social media platform recently rolled out new live location rules to manage a bot account, @ElonJet, created by Jack Sweeney to track Elon Musk’s flights.

Twitter suspends @ElonJet; then lifts suspension hours later, rolling out new live location rules