The billionaire sparked an uproar on Sunday by banning Twitter users from promoting their accounts on other social networks. The measure was lifted in the early morning.
The controversial decision only lasted about ten hours. This Monday morning, Twitter deleted from its rules of use a measure that prohibited its users from promoting their accounts on certain competing social networks and from posting links to these services. Earlier in the night, the official Twitter Safety account had asked Internet users if this rule should be lifted. The yes won almost 90%.
The measure had sparked a bronca on the social network, and even among defenders of Elon Musk. “It’s the last straw. I’m giving up. You will find a link to my Mastodon profile on my website», tweeted Paul Graham, co-founder of the famous start-up incubator Y Combinator. His account was suspended by Twitter in the process, before being reinstated Monday morning.
From now on, it is Elon Musk who asks Twitter users if he should resign from the direction of the social network. At 10 a.m., theyes» won at 57%. “In the future, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My excuses. This will not happen again“said the new owner of Twitter.
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Suspension in the event of a repeat offense
“Twitter no longer allows free promotion of certain social networks on Twitter“, indicated a press release published Sunday afternoon, specifying that Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr are concerned, as well as “links to social media aggregators like linktr.ee, lnk.bio“. Users who violated this policy risked temporary account suspension, the statement said. For example, it became prohibited to tweet: “Please follow me @ID on Instagram»
“If violations of the rule remain an isolated act or a first violation, we can take a number of measures ranging from deleting one or more tweets to temporarily locking account(s)“, details Twitter. But “any repeat offense will result in a permanent suspension“warned the platform.
Tweets were not the only ones to be affected by this new policy, since the biography and the name of the user could not contain a link either, under penalty of temporary or even permanent suspension.
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Elon Musk, who has recently acquired Twitter for 44 billion dollars, wants to be a fervent defender of freedom of expression. He has, however, in recent days, deleted and then reinstated the accounts of several American journalists, CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post in particular. This has caused concern in the European Union and the UN, and the Vice-President of the European Commission has even threatened him with sanctions.