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It's news to me that that users are not allowed to mention other social networks' accounts on Twitter anymore. Seems short sighted, how many users is Twitter lo

by ipsum2 4y ago

It's news to me that that users are not allowed to mention other social networks' accounts on Twitter anymore. Seems short sighted, how many users is Twitter losing to Instagram/Discord/Mastodon?

K7PJP 4y ago
It's a brand new policy, and it was enforced before it was even declared. I just deleted my Twitter account after 14 years. It's over.
input_sh 4y ago
The policy change was on the frontpage of HN just a couple of hours ago, but you can imagine how comments went and why it's no longer there.
- duskwuff 4y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34040165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34040165 is on the front page at #19 right now. There were a couple of other duplicate discussions, but that's the main one.
- permalac 4y ago
  Self censoring? Or cease and desist?
  - txru 4y ago
    HN relatively deweights posts that get a lot of argument without a lot of insight. Things about politics, or tech involved culture war, or continuous divisive news stories disappear from the front page quickly. I would classify that as ‘generic moderation policy’ rather than censorship
r721 4y ago
Here is the HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34040165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34040165
vkou 4y ago
It's not short-sighted, Twitter is simply championing free speech. Free speech is defined as the intersection between anything-thats-legal and anything-that-doesn't-upset-its-owner.
- CryptoBanker 4y ago
  Are you deliberately trolling?
  - vkou 4y ago
    No, I'm just connecting the data points between what Musk says, and what he does. Mostly between what he does, actually. If you think that this is a farce, that's because we are living in one. I suppose it is possible that he is trolling us with his moderation policies... It's true that this generates relatively low-quality commentary, but it's not clear to me how a discussion of the behaviour of a man who says one thing, and does another can do otherwise.
flutas 4y ago
>It's news to me that that users are not allowed to mention other social networks' accounts on Twitter anymore. Isn't that a mischaracterization though? The new policy they announced, as far as I've seen, only applies if the account is "solely" promoting other brands. [0] > 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. [0]: https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1604531265419591681 https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/160453126541959168... EDIT: The tweet linked seems to be the mischaracterization and not this take. Reading the full policy[1] does say that, while their tweets don't. [1]: https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platforms-policy https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platfo...
- tobylane 4y ago
  That may be the written policy, but there were widespread reports of mastodon ('s largest sites) being considered too harmful a link to be put in a twitter bio. https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blocking-mastodon-links-elon-musk-elonjet https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blockin... I don't see PG reacting to that news on twitter. Is there a reaction anywhere?
  - flutas 4y ago
    > That may be the written policy, but there were widespread reports of mastodon ('s largest sites) being considered too harmful a link to be put in a twitter bio. https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blockin https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blockin... I saw that and assumed (maybe wrongly) that it was an automated ban from some internal automod-like system running amuck and due to the layoffs/quits/staff issues no body at Twitter knowing how to disable it. Guess the jury is still out, but does anybody know if that same error is showing up for facebook links for example? If so it's a smoking gun.
  - mmastrac 4y ago
    I just tested a few mins ago and I wasn't able to tweet a link to a post on hachyderm (not even just my profile) because it was "harmful".
purple_ferret 4y ago
There's an exception: TikTok Fortuitously preserving LibsOfTikTok and Elon's good relationship with the CCP
- russdill 4y ago
  I'm fully willing to pile on, but I don't know that it's an example of a policy violation. It's linking to things people are doing on TikTok, not promoting a specific account or TikTok itself.
  - purple_ferret 4y ago
    The policy doesn't mention individual accounts but the platform itself: >we will remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms >Accounts that are used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform may be suspended
donkeyd 4y ago
Interestingly though, the accounts for Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram are still on Twitter, but the one for Mastodon isn't. I wonder why...

by ipsum2 4y ago

It's news to me that that users are not allowed to mention other social networks' accounts on Twitter anymore. Seems short sighted, how many users is Twitter losing to Instagram/Discord/Mastodon?

K7PJP 4y ago

It's a brand new policy, and it was enforced before it was even declared. I just deleted my Twitter account after 14 years. It's over.

input_sh 4y ago

The policy change was on the frontpage of HN just a couple of hours ago, but you can imagine how comments went and why it's no longer there.

duskwuff 4y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34040165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34040165 is on the front page at #19 right now. There were a couple of other duplicate discussions, but that's the main one.
permalac 4y ago
Self censoring? Or cease and desist?
- txru 4y ago
  HN relatively deweights posts that get a lot of argument without a lot of insight. Things about politics, or tech involved culture war, or continuous divisive news stories disappear from the front page quickly. I would classify that as ‘generic moderation policy’ rather than censorship

r721 4y ago

Here is the HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34040165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34040165

vkou 4y ago

It's not short-sighted, Twitter is simply championing free speech. Free speech is defined as the intersection between anything-thats-legal and anything-that-doesn't-upset-its-owner.

CryptoBanker 4y ago
Are you deliberately trolling?
- vkou 4y ago
  No, I'm just connecting the data points between what Musk says, and what he does. Mostly between what he does, actually. If you think that this is a farce, that's because we are living in one. I suppose it is possible that he is trolling us with his moderation policies... It's true that this generates relatively low-quality commentary, but it's not clear to me how a discussion of the behaviour of a man who says one thing, and does another can do otherwise.

flutas 4y ago

>It's news to me that that users are not allowed to mention other social networks' accounts on Twitter anymore. Isn't that a mischaracterization though? The new policy they announced, as far as I've seen, only applies if the account is "solely" promoting other brands. [0] > 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. [0]: https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1604531265419591681 https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/160453126541959168... EDIT: The tweet linked seems to be the mischaracterization and not this take. Reading the full policy[1] does say that, while their tweets don't. [1]: https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platforms-policy https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platfo...

tobylane 4y ago
That may be the written policy, but there were widespread reports of mastodon ('s largest sites) being considered too harmful a link to be put in a twitter bio. https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blocking-mastodon-links-elon-musk-elonjet https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blockin... I don't see PG reacting to that news on twitter. Is there a reaction anywhere?
- flutas 4y ago
  > That may be the written policy, but there were widespread reports of mastodon ('s largest sites) being considered too harmful a link to be put in a twitter bio. https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blockin https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512113/twitter-blockin... I saw that and assumed (maybe wrongly) that it was an automated ban from some internal automod-like system running amuck and due to the layoffs/quits/staff issues no body at Twitter knowing how to disable it. Guess the jury is still out, but does anybody know if that same error is showing up for facebook links for example? If so it's a smoking gun.
- mmastrac 4y ago
  I just tested a few mins ago and I wasn't able to tweet a link to a post on hachyderm (not even just my profile) because it was "harmful".

purple_ferret 4y ago

There's an exception: TikTok Fortuitously preserving LibsOfTikTok and Elon's good relationship with the CCP

russdill 4y ago
I'm fully willing to pile on, but I don't know that it's an example of a policy violation. It's linking to things people are doing on TikTok, not promoting a specific account or TikTok itself.
- purple_ferret 4y ago
  The policy doesn't mention individual accounts but the platform itself: >we will remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms >Accounts that are used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform may be suspended

donkeyd 4y ago

Interestingly though, the accounts for Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram are still on Twitter, but the one for Mastodon isn't. I wonder why...