Twitter continues its 180 degree turn. The application will now prohibit its users from posting links to competing social networks, such as Facebook or Instagram, at a time when Elon Musk’s platform is coming under heavy criticism for having suspended several journalists’ accounts. “Twitter no longer allows free promotion of certain social networks on Twitter,” the platform announced on Sunday, December 18. Are concerned: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr. As well as “social media link aggregators like linktr.ee, lnk.bio“, it is specified.
What does this change? For example, it becomes prohibited to tweet: “Thank you for following me @Identifier on Instagram”. The sanction is severe: when the user puts an Instagram photo, he exposes himself to a suspension of his account. Ditto if he mentions one of his other accounts in his biography or in his name. “If violations of the rule remain an isolated act or a first violation, we can take a number of measures ranging from the deletion of one or more tweets to the temporary locking of account (s)”, details Twitter. But offenders are warned: “Any repeat offense will result in a permanent suspension.”
These new rules are unveiled as many Twitter users have recently said they are considering migrating to other platforms, like Mastodon, which most likely worries the new boss of the San Francisco-based company. The change also aroused the misunderstanding of Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, a company he left in 2021. “Why?”, He soberly tweeted. After some accounts were suspended under the new policy, including that of investor Paul Graham, Elon Musk qualified his decision. He tweeted that instead of targeting individual tweets, the policy would be limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s ‘primary’ purpose is promoting competitors.”
Series of power plays
Since the takeover of Twitter by the boss of Tesla and SpaceX at the end of October, for 44 billion dollars, the moderation rules put in place on the social network by Elon Musk, self-proclaimed defender of freedom of expression, have caused concern. Leak of advertisers, massive layoffs, cascading resignations, cacophony around new features… The latest coup to date: in recent days, he has deleted and then restored the accounts of several American journalists from CNN, from New York Times and washington post in particular, causing the European Union and the UN to react. The Vice-President of the European Commission even threatened him with sanctions. On Friday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) considered that “the arbitrariness of the major platforms” constituted a “major danger for democracy”.
Before that, the multi-billionaire had suspended the @elonjet account on Wednesday, which automatically reported the journeys of his private jet, then those of journalists who had then tweeted about this decision, accusing them of putting his family in danger. They were reinstated on Saturday, but some said they were told to delete certain posts if they wanted to make full use of the platform. And, on Saturday evening, the Twitter account of a journalist from Washington Post, Taylor Lorenz, who covers the technology sector, was in turn suspended for several hours. “Elon Musk has suspended my Twitter account,” she wrote on her blog. His account was reinstated on Sunday.
This offensive reflects above all a real drift in terms of freedom of expression, which the creator of Space X had nevertheless sworn to defend. Musk has been sending mixed messages ever since he took over Twitter, reinstating previously banned accounts, including Donald Trump’s. It must be said that publications arousing indignation and anger cause many interactions on social networks. But he also suspended that of Kanye West after the publication of several messages deemed anti-Semitic, and refused the return to the platform of far-right conspirator Alex Jones. By laying off half of the seven thousand five hundred employees of the social network, the richest man on the planet has a free hand to test his new toy. On the other hand, he failed to put an end to the fake accounts on Twitter, against which he had gone on a crusade.
On Friday, December 19, the star entrepreneur submitted his future as CEO of the social network to a vote by site users. “Should I quit running Twitter?” he tweeted, asking them to click yes or no. “I will respect the results of this poll,” he said, with voting open until the early hours of Monday. The one who wants to be the champion of freedom of expression is in the process of profoundly transforming the platform. “The bird is free,” he tweeted at the time of the takeover. Truly ?