Twitter Suddenly Reverses Course on 'Policy' That Banned Links to Competing Social Media Sites

Less than a day after it was introduced, the new policy was quickly undone. Musk banned external links to other social media sites suddenly.

The free promotion of certain social media platforms will no longer be allowed on the site. There was a ban on accounts created for the sole creation of advertising, but also at the account level. The policy would have banned the use of links in users account names or bios. The shift came just a few days after Mastodon was labeled "potentially harmful".

When it isn't being used by troll to bully marginalized groups and shitpost about the daily news, it's a real self-promotion platform. There was a groundswell of users recoiling at the new policy. Musk asked a user to give up their suggestion for a new policy after he responded to one of the critical posts. After some back and forth from upset users, Musk decided to announce an alternative on the fly.

The policy will be adjusted to suspending accounts only when their primary purpose is promotion of competitors. The CEO said votes would take place for major policy changes in the future.

After Musk backtracked, a separate account called Twitter Safety asked users if the platform should have a policy prohibiting the creation of or use of existing accounts for the purpose of advertising other social media platforms. The vast majority of respondents voted against introducing such a rule.

Just hours before the policy took effect, Musk published a post that seemed to contradict its purpose. Musk said sharing links is fine, but he was againstlentless advertising of competitors for free.

The inherently subjective nature of that opinion makes it hard to base a policy off of it. The same criticisms of inconsistency and arbitrariness are lodged towards the company's previous leadership. The world watches as one of the world's richest men learns how difficult it is to run a social media company.