Twitter will no longer allow users to promote their presence on certain social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, and Post. In a post outlining these changes<\/a>, Twitter says it will take action against users that violate this policy \u201cat both the Tweet level and the account level.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This means users can no longer include links to their profiles on other social networks in their Twitter bio, nor can they send out tweets directing users to check out their Instagram or Facebook accounts. The policy doesn\u2019t just include links from other platforms, either; it even extends to posting usernames or handles from competing platforms without URLs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Additionally, users can no longer tweet out posts from banned platforms unless it\u2019s a cross-post, meaning the same post has to be shared to both the competing site and<\/em> Twitter. Twitter may also suspend accounts \u201cused for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform,\u201d and will no longer allow users to link to third-party link aggregators, like Linktree or Lnk.bio. Despite all this, Twitter is still fine with the paid promotion of these banned platforms (although this feature doesn\u2019t seem to be available yet<\/a>):<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We recognize that certain social media platforms provide alternative experiences to Twitter, and allow users to post content to Twitter from these platforms. In general, any type of cross-posting to our platform is not in violation of this policy, even from the prohibited sites listed above. Additionally, we allow paid advertisement\/promotion for any of the prohibited social media platforms.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Twitter says it will remove any tweets that contain violations of the policy, and could temporarily suspend users with links to banned social platforms in their profiles. It will also take action against users who try to get around this policy by cloaking URLs to other platforms or \u201cspelling out \u201cdot\u201d for social media platforms that use \u2018.\u2019 in the names to avoid URL creation, or sharing screenshots of your handle on a prohibited social media platform.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other platforms, like Telegram, TikTok, YouTube, Weibo, and OnlyFans remain safe from the Twitter ban for now, and the motivation behind banning links to certain networks and not others isn\u2019t clear. \u201cTwitter should be easy to use, but no more relentless free advertising of competitors,\u201d Elon Musk writes on Twitter<\/a>. \u201cNo traditional publisher allows this and neither will Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Twitter already blocks links to Twitter competitor Mastodon<\/a> at a platform level. Trying to tweet out a link to several Mastodon servers or the site itself results in an error message, stating: \u201cWe can\u2019t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.\u201d We don\u2019t know whether Twitter will eventually disable links from the banned platforms in a similar manner, but at this time of writing, it seems users are still able to post links from these networks. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n In response to Twitter Support\u2019s thread about the new policy, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, replied<\/a> \u201cWhy?\u201d Dorsey recently donated around $245,000<\/a> to the development of the decentralized social network Nostr, which is included in Twitter\u2019s ban. Dorsey says<\/a> Twitter\u2019s block on the network \u201cdoesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d and currently has his Nostr username listed in his Twitter bio, potentially putting him at risk of suspension. The Verge<\/em> reached out to Twitter for more information about its new policies but didn\u2019t immediately hear back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This all follows a chaotic week for Twitter that saw the suspension of numerous journalists<\/a> \u2014 including CNN\u2019s Donie O\u2019Sullivan and\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u2019 Ryan Mac \u2014 after they tweeted about @ElonJet, a now-banned Twitter account<\/a> that tracked the location of the billionaire\u2019s private jet. Musk claims the journalists \u201cdoxxed\u201d his location, and later had Twitter implement a policy that bans \u201clive location information,\u201d as well as \u201clinks to 3rd-party URL(s) of travel routes.\u201d While Musk later reinstated most of the banned accounts<\/a> after polling users on whether Twitter should lift their suspensions, he briefly suspended The Washington Post<\/em> reporter Taylor Lorenz for \u201cprior doxxing action<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Update, 2:39PM ET: <\/strong>Updated to add Dorsey\u2019s response and additional context surrounding his investment in Nostr.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Update, 4:40PM ET: <\/strong>Updated to add Musk\u2019s comment on the new policy.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n