Twitter will censor tweets that include links to other social networks

A common practice, especially among “celebrities” active on multiple social networks at once, posting messages that include links to pages managed on other social networks is now banned on Twitter, with users who distribute such tweets censored and penalised.

The new policy was confirmed on the official Twitter account itself for technical support, the change representing CEO Elon Musk’s new view that distributing links promoting rival social networks is considered advertising and should be taxed. The list of nominated social media platforms includes Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post, but can be arbitrarily expanded to include any “inconvenient” social network.

According to the notice on the official Twitter tech support account, the restrictions apply to the Twitter account’s bio section as well, with users not allowed to add links to other social media platforms to their own description. The use of third party services, such as linktr.ee or lnk.bio, to mask unlinked links in an abbreviated form is also prohibited.

Beyond CEO Elon Musk’s mercenary intentions, the measure seems more like a desperate attempt to prevent an exodus of users to other social media platforms, putting as many obstacles as possible in the way of celebrities trying to leave Twitter with their followers.

Also according to Twitter Support, accounts created solely to promote other social platforms will be removed from Twitter. Although it appears to target newly registered spam accounts, the announcement is more of a jab at the platform’s outraged stars, tempted to resort to extreme measures such as deleting all previously distributed tweets, leaving instead a single message with a link to the new identity created on a rival social media platform.