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Twitter will not allow free promotion of certain social media platforms
- h2odragon 4y agoEven I can't think up a devil's advocate argument for this one. This is stupid. If Twitter isn't to be the place for media platforms of all sizes to announce their publications in whatever media, then what is it to be? AOL again?
- drumhead 4y agoWill the platforms he's censoring also block links to twitter? Seems only fair.
- sergiomattei 4y agoI’m stunned. This seems to be a hot-headed move out of fear of these platforms.
- hairofadog 4y agoSame. I'm having a difficult time imagining anything happening other than either (a) Musk removes himself or is forced out, or (b) it slowly fades into obscurity like Yahoo. I just don't see how any of this can continue other than maybe hostile foreign states pouring more money into it.
- sschueller 4y agoI see a lot of other things that can happen. What ever happens it will be interesting to watch from the side lines. Some other possibilities : (c) Twitter's server stack collapses as changes are rolled out and it can't be fixed In a reasanble amount of time resulting in a mass exadus. (d) they can't make their debt payments and can't pay their workers which will then all leave. Twitter is already behind of paying rent in some places. (e) Twitter's board members have to show up to congress because of some scandal that playd out on the platform
- kccoder 4y agoNot a sign of confidence in one’s own product.
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- madars 4y agoSo https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platforms-policy https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platfo... explicitly lists "username@mastodon.social" or "check out my profile on Facebook - facebook.com/username" as examples (!) of tweets that will be deleted, and posting "instagram dot com/username" will be treated as obfuscation. Oh, and repeat "offenses" result in permanent suspension.
- esperent 4y agoI'm curious if this is legal - at least in the EU it seems like banning discussion of competitors by a media company is something that would already be legislated against.
- fredley 4y agoApple apply this logic to apps though. You cannot publish an app on the App Store that even mentions Android. This came to promenance when the Apple Watch launched and Apple started banning apps that mentioned Pebble.
- KennyBlanken 4y ago> We still allow cross-posting content from any social media platform. Posting links or usernames to social media platforms not listed above are also not in violation of this policy. Read between the lines and you'll see that this doesn't mean they're backing down from hiding links to popular mastodon servers behind warnings that the links might be dangerous or inappropriate. For a while now Twitter has been reacting in various ways to people posting links to their mastodon profiles in their twitter bios or making tweets linking to mastodon profiles and tweets...shadowbans, warnings that links are to sensitive/dangerous content, and so on. It's clearly a targeted action, as people have noticed only links to popular servers were being affected. Elon is such a child.
- Finnucane 4y agoHe fears John Mastodon.
- cesarb 4y ago> He fears John Mastodon. Context for those who don't know of this meme, given that it's something like 1 day old: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield/109530309049677792 https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield/109530309049677792 "[someone] misread the Twitter account @joinmastodon as "John Mastodon," and said that the open source social media software was named after this imaginary person."
- davidbarker 4y agoThis is stunning. What is a violation of this policy? At both the Tweet level and the account level, we will remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms, such as linking out (i.e. using URLs) to any of the below platforms on Twitter, or providing your handle without a URL: Prohibited platforms: - Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr - 3rd-party social media link aggregators such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio - Examples: - “follow me @username on Instagram” - “username@mastodon.social” - “check out my profile on Facebook - facebook.com/username” (https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platforms-policy https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platfo...)
- KennyBlanken 4y agoWhat I don't understand: they posted a second tweet that directly contradicts that rules and policies document. > https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1604531268493795329 https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/160453126849379532... > We still allow cross-posting content from any social media platform. Posting links or usernames to social media platforms not listed above are also not in violation of this policy.
- anigbrowl 4y agoWhat's better than 1 clear rule? 2 ambiguous ones that you can use to keep most people confused and paralyzed.
- davidbarker 4y agoThis confused me too, but I believe they're saying "if you upload (for example) a photo to Instagram, we'll still allow you to upload it to Twitter also, but you're not allowed to link to it". I find it strange they explicitly mention this, though. As if they might decide only completely original media is allowed on Twitter.
- kccoder 4y ago> As if they might decide only completely original media is allowed on Twitter. Pretty sure that is precisely where things are headed. A viable alternative can’t come soon enough.
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- optionalsquid 4y agoThe new policy prohibits "3rd-party social media link aggregators such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio". I imagine that will impact a lot of small content creators. From what I've seen, many streamers, artists, and indie developers use sites like linktr.ee and carrd.co for advertising for their work across different platforms
- sidcool 4y agoYep. Put more people on a pedestal and watch them harm society.
- laveur 4y agoThis sure sounds like a good way to get an antitrust/anticompetitive lawsuit launched against you.
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- crmd 4y agoWhether it’s Twitter or the US Supreme Court, I’m amused how the group out of power argues earnestly for restraint of power until the millisecond they gain power and immediately adopt their opponent’s previous position for the free exercise of power while their opponents immediately begin arguing earnestly for restraint of power.
- dpkirchner 4y agoSame as it ever was. I'm amused at how many people believed and still believe that it was going to be different this time. Hero worship and unrequited love for Musk is just bizarre.
- salawat 4y agoWhat do you mean "the entire point of having power is to avoid exercising it as much as possible to minimize disruption? We worked hard to get here, now you're telling me not to use it?" Honestly. It's a story old as our collective conception of time. Youth is yearning to power. Being grown up is hoping to $deity that anyone who gets there is too tired or lost to use it to screw things up majorly.
- Pxtl 4y agoThis is unfair bothsidesism. During the "progressive" era of twitter governance, policy was introduced with countless warnings and slow-walks, and had clear justification. There was nothing as naked as the retroactive bans for location info or as anticompetitive as banning linking to your off-site social media profile.
- raxxorraxor 4y agoNot really, it was pretty strong curation of certain narratives and maybe the FBI was also involved. They had pretty strong ties which many already suspected. Whether Twitter employees were groomed into censoring in the interest of state authorities or did it on their own volition is probably to be determined. But I think making the fact transparent was a good step. Because that is vastly more relevant than any other content removal if political interests get involved.
- exabrial 4y agoI'd actually really like to log back into my Twitter account, but I can't get ahold of their customer service dept :( I lost my 2fa key and I stupidly didn't have a backup one installed.
- d23 4y agoI just don't see how anyone with a modicum of intellectual honesty and consistency can still support this person on anything resembling principles.
- grappler 4y agoUsing twitter, linking to twitter, giving a twitter as your contact handle... these things are now markers of the Wrong Kind of People. I wouldn't want to be one of those people, and I hope you wouldn't either.
- paulryanrogers 4y agoSarcasm?
- rlt 4y agoIncredibly shortsighted and disappointing, and I say that as someone who respects Elon and had hope for what he’d do with Twitter. Any and all credibility to his “free speech” mission has evaporated. The only way I could possibly steel man this decision is if they had data showing this kind of promotion was an imminent existential threat to Twitter, which would jeopardize the broader mission, but I think this is obviously the wrong solution and just digging his grave deeper.
- orange_fritter 4y agoI thought "the broader mission" of Elon's purchase of Twitter at this point was to be radically dedicated to free speech, even if he loses money.
- Pxtl 4y agoBecause free speech was always about the kind of speech that Musk wanted to be free: transphobia and COVID conspiracy theories. He saw people he agreed with being silenced, but never cared otherwise.
- d23 4y agoFinding out his daughter is trans put his public transphobia in a particularly cruel light for me.
- phonix 4y agoFrom his point of view, he probably sees it as his son being groomed by an online cult, and will do anything in his power to vanquish it.
- rlt 4y agoSorry, when has he been transphobic? He’s expressed a dislike for pronouns, but no actual transphobia that I’ve seen.
- Kye 4y agoA lot of people called this descent into self-parody well in advance. I understand how reality distortion fields work, so I don't fault people who bought into Elon Musk's myth. I just hope people who did will develop an allergy to others so they aren't duped again. And I especially hope people who mocked and demeaned people who said all this was going to happen will be less reactive and more thoughtful in the future.
- lbeltrame 4y agoAm I the only one who thought that there were no changes in Twitter due to the acquisition and the platform was pretty bad all time around? A question that seems loaded but I've seen people lamenting the "good old times", but these times were indeed old, but not good, especially if you tried to have a nuanced position in debates.
- Kye 4y agoIt's been a pit since around 2014, ramped up to the garbage heap in 2016, then went absolutely off the rails in 2020. All Musk did before now is formalize how bad it was by decree. This is different because it essentially undid what a lot of holdouts were using it for. I don't think most creators were as dependent on it as they believed, but it wasn't entirely learned helplessness. It's going to take work to weave their platforms back together now that they can't link to anything on Twitter.
- lbeltrame 4y agoTo be honest, I experienced what it meant to be on the "bad side of the fence", in my little universe (20 following, a few hundred followers of which mostly I don't know who they are) well before Musk. It was pretty stressful if you chose to engage with the platform. But I decided that my account has basically zero value and it will be phased out after August 2023 (long story on why).
- ProjectArcturis 4y agoThere were good pockets. If you followed the right people and set it to chronological display, it was quite useful.
- electrondood 4y agoIs linking to your own content "free promotion" of the platform? No. An individual user isn't stealing "free promotion" for the business that owns the competitor platform. They're sharing additional information in a link. You know, in a free-speechy kinda way?
- wilg 4y agoThis really is such a crazy policy there’s not much else to say about it.
- wildpeaks 4y agoI'm surprised Reddit isn't in the list
- mid-kid 4y agoIsn't this an anti-trust violation?
- salawat 4y agoFrom my viewpoint, this is anti-competitive. IANAL, just read lawyerly things, and maintain a capacity for independent thought.
- neatze 4y agoIt is funny/sad to how similar it is to what happened with freenode.
- d23 4y agoI wish there was as turnkey of an alternative available when it happened, but his ongoing immolation might give the alternatives time to catch up.
- noaheverett 4y agoBeen working on one since last year https://glue.im/noah https://glue.im/noah
- thinkingemote 4y agoTwitter needs to add OnlyFans and other porn sites to their list.
- dvngnt_ 4y agoah the tumblr move. let's see how that works out for him
- FranzFerdiNaN 4y agoIm starting to think this Musk dude isn’t as smart as he made people believe.
- d23 4y agoThe emperor has no clothes, people are realizing it, he banned clothing-related discussions, and he's now banning any site where clothing-related discussions can happen.
- almog 4y agoI used to think of Facebook's attempt to control, own and lock our social graph as a manifestation of the Fahrenheigt 451 approach to dystopian society. In that sense, Twitter/Musk idea of of society borrows its ideas from 1984 instead.
- Pxtl 4y agoI look forward to Dang booting this news off the site in 20 minutes because objective reality is not compatible with being polite and centrist about this absolute wingnut debacle.
- throwaway128128 4y agoAnother asterisk on Free** Speech Absolutism.
- michelb 4y agoThere is always a tweet: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1533616384747442176 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1533616384747442176
- michelb 4y agoand the undo. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604615711036407809 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604615711036407809 What a trainwreck.
- anigbrowl 4y agoThe acid test for any two competing socioeconomic systems is which side needs to build a wall to keep people from escaping? That’s the bad one! June 25 2022 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1533616384747442176 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1533616384747442176
- hatenberg 4y agoSame as with Trump, time to self contradiction is shortening rapidly.
- j1elo 4y agoWait so, according to the rules stated at https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platforms-policy https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platfo... We wouldn't be able to post something like "follow Jamie Oliver to learn more about cooking https://linktr.ee/jamieoliver https://linktr.ee/jamieoliver" ?? Doesn't that have quite an excessive totalitarian feeling?
- t0mas88 4y ago> Doesn't that have quite an excessive totalitarian feeling? It does. Basically we just learned that "radical free speech" is newspeak for "only things Elon likes today" And we already knew Elon is completely mad, so whatever he does or doesn't ban can change by the minute.
- thinking4real 4y agoSo you can’t use twitter as a tool to promote your social media accounts on other platforms. This sounds completely reasonable, just as you wouldn’t expect walmart to let you hold rallies to promote Target while you’re shopping in their store. Yet again, I’m dismayed at the efforts folks will go through to hate Elon and paint him into this bumbling idiot. Hubris is abound.
- kart23 4y agoIf there ever was a example of anti-competitive practices, its this. from https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/anticompetitive-practices https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/anticompetitive-practices: > It is unlawful for a company to monopolize or attempt to monopolize trade, meaning a firm with market power cannot act to maintain or acquire a dominant position by excluding competitors or preventing new entry. Seems pretty freaking clear that this would prevent new entries to the social media space, e.g. mastodon.
- cramjabsyn 4y agoTime for a mass exodus. Seriously. Anyone sticking around is hanging on to what they had in the old system. That’s dead and gone. its time to move on.
- entropicgravity 4y agoMusk doesn't want to see his $40bn investment disappear in a puff of smoke in a couple of months. Sure, he expected his brand with the public to stay strong but then, at about the same time, he started to behave in Trumpish ways, nay say Dr. Fauci (so Musk is an anti-vaxxer?, really?), treat a large proportion of the Twitter employees like dirt. This all adds up to very poor timing. Musk needs to find a top class PR firm or his entire $40bn could slip through his fingers. Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair.
- pipeline_peak 4y agoThe definition of “free speech” is looking awfully checkered these days…
- Kye 4y agoThe policy and the tweets about it vanished.
- Cameri 4y agoAnd it's gone now.