Elon Musk doesn't understand creators. Twitter's third-party link ban proves it.

It was announced last weekend that it would no longer allow free promotion. All evidence of the ban was deleted after it was dropped. There will be a vote for major policy changes going forward. I'm sorry. Won't happen again Everyone got on with their lives.

I can't stop thinking about it.

I can't believe how bad of a call the ban was. We should break it down.

First things first: What did the ban policy say?

"We will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms" is the first line of the policy, which is deceptive. It makes sense since these types of accounts could be flagged as junk mail. The policy stated that "content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post."

It said a violation of the ban was "linking out (i.e. using URLs) or providing your handle without a URL." The examples were given.

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OK got it, so why is this policy so idiotic (and what's the real reason for the ban)?

The ban was a desperate attempt by Musk to stem the bleeding. Video-based platforms like YouTube and TikTok were not included in the list of prohibited platforms due to Musk's concern with cutting off users from competing platforms.

Policies like this fail because they don't reflect how social media works as a conduit for sharing and connecting.

The policy betrays a deep misunderstanding of the problems that exist at this time. Many people want to leave or already have left because of Musk, the rise in hate speech or other reasons. Dozens of people on my timeline have said things like "if this website dies, see you on another social media site" and shared their Mastodon usernames. They always say "if this platform dies" or "just in case things get worse here on social media."

Some people want to go somewhere else. It would appear that others don't want the site to be as good as they want it to be. Instead of addressing the root issues of why people think the site is dying, Musk and his staff scrambled to weaken the healthy competition that challenges them to actually work hard to make a place where people want to stay.

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Why does it matter so much that this ban would directly affect creators?

Is there a lot of misinformation on the social networking site? It's true. A place for artists, musicians, photographers, comedians, writers, and other creators to share their work that keeps the website from burning itself up. Some of them have built businesses and careers on the backs of their followers, but it's difficult to make money on the platform. To survive, these creators need to work on other platforms. How do they market those platforms? Linktr.ee and Ink.bio pages could be linked to online shops or affiliates. It's a good idea to cut off creators from their livelihoods if you can.

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There was a ban on free advertising of competitors. None of the traditional publishers will allow this. First of all, I don't know what traditional publisher has to offer when it comes to user-generated content, so the comparison is ridiculous. Musk is making it clear that he's missing something. People link to Facebook to support their own pages on the platform, not to give Meta a boost.

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They will leave a platform that doesn't pay them for one that doesn't pay them if they can't survive on a single platform. The most idiotic part of the ban is that it doesn't make the service better.