Twitter bans promotion of accounts on other social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social

Twitter will no longer allow users to promote their accounts on at least seven other major social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, the platform announced Sunday.

The new policy comes after many users began posting links to their accounts on other sites following Elon Musk’s takeover as CEO of Twitter and the platform’s subsequent reinstatement of far-right accounts, suspension of journalists and mass layoffs under his reign.

“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,” Twitter Support tweeted Sunday.

“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,” the post continued.

Advertisement

The policy will also ban third-party link aggregators including linktr.ee and lnk.bio, it states, adding that it will also seek to remove users who try to circumvent the rules by spelling out “dot” and sharing screenshots of their handles on prohibited platforms, among other means.

The policy marks the most significant change to Twitter under Musk and is among the most expansive of any social media platforms’ policies in how it limits what users can post. Other social media companies have few, if any, rules about users’ posting links to their accounts on other platforms.

Twitter announced the change during the finale of the World Cup, which Musk attended and tweeted from. He was pictured sitting near Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump.

The new rules add to what has been a particularly chaotic stretch for the company and its new owner, with Twitter having suspended and reinstated some journalists over the past few days after a sudden rule change that targeted the dissemination about the flights of private jets.

First-time violators of the new rule may be required to delete tweets or may have their accounts locked, and “any subsequent offenses will result in permanent suspension,” the platform said. Users who violate the policy by linking or mentioning other social media accounts in their bio or account name will have their account temporarily suspended and will be required to remove the mentions to be reinstated.

The new rule will still allow users to cross-post content from other sites, as well as links or usernames to social media sites that are not subject to the ban, the company said. Users who believe their accounts were mistakenly suspended or locked can appeal, Twitter added.

Some in the tech industry criticized the move. Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud storage company Box tweeted, “This is just sad.” Benedict Evans, a London-based tech analyst, tweeted that the move was “absolutely pathetic.”

Taylor Lorenz, a Washington Post tech and online culture columnist who was suspended from Twitter Saturday night and has since been reinstated, told NBC News that she “cannot imagine a worse policy if you want content creators to come on your site.”

“People don’t want to be locked in a jail and that is what Musk is doing,” she added. “He’s closing the doors and trying to keep people in.”

Lorenz previously had a tweet pinned to her profile promoting her accounts on other sites, including some of those that are now banned. But as soon as she was reinstated, which was right around the time the company announced the new policy, she took that tweet down, she said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Ezra Kaplan contributed.