Twitter bans links to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and more

Twitter announced on Sunday that it would no longer allow users to share links to other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon, as well as link-in-bio sites like Linktree and Lnk.Bio. Posting handles used on other networks also won’t be allowed, the company said.

It will ask users to delete their tweets if they post such links or handles, and temporarily lock their accounts if they continue to do so. Profile bios that include links to other platforms will also be temporarily suspended until users change their bios.

In a series of tweets which was later deleted, the company said that it would 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 know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms; however, going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter,” the company said on its policy page, which currently shows a 404 error.

After Twitter came under fire for its new policy, Elon Musk 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 Safety team also launched a poll asking users if the social media company should ‘’have a policy preventing the creation of or use of existing accounts for the main purpose of advertising other social media platforms’’.

The announcement comes just days after Twitter suspended the account of Mastodon and banned links to some of its servers. It also suspended the accounts of many journalists covering the new boss Elon Musk, including Ryan Mac of The New York Times, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwel, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, Mashable’s Matt Binder, The Intercept’s Micah Lee, Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster. All of these accounts, including that of Mastodon, have now been reinstated.

Musk creates poll asking if he should step down as Twitter head

Earlier today, Musk created a poll asking users if he should step down as head of Twitter. He said he would abide by the result of the poll, which has received over 14.5 million votes at the time of the writing, with 57% of them being ‘’Yes’’.

‘’As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it,’’ he wrote in another tweet.