Twitter to suspend accounts associated with other social networking sites

He then launched a Twitter poll, polling users on whether he should step down. Musk stuck to previous polls, despite them being unscientific and unrepresentative.

“Should I step down as president of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.” he wrote. He added shortly thereafter: “As the saying goes, be careful what you want, you might get it.”

Respondents leaned heavily “yes” in Musk’s poll, indicating that Musk should step down, after nearly an hour of voting: 58 percent of the more than 3 million votes favor him handing over the reins. The poll was scheduled to expire tomorrow morning, Monday, before the opening of the stock exchange. During a period when Tesla shares — the source of much of Musk’s net worth — has declined. Investors said Musk stepping down from Twitter would improve Tesla’s outlook

Musk’s sudden reversal came after Twitter said earlier in the day that it would begin suspending accounts associated with “restricted platforms” like Facebook and Instagram if those accounts were “used for the primary purpose of promoting content on another social platform,” according to the announcement. Sunday.

The PoliciesTweets promoting accounts on some sites may be removed, he says, dated this month and tweeted on Sunday afternoon if users urge their Twitter followers to join them elsewhere.

The policy states that “at the tweet level and at the account level, we will remove any free promotion of prohibited third party social media platforms”. It lists many examples of such social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, and social truthwhich is former President Donald Trump Co-founder.

Musk’s ownership of Twitter – which he bought in October for $44 billion – has caused turmoil for the site. he is Removal of company executives He installed a team of loyalists, laid off more than half of the staff, and ordered Twitter content moderation. He dabbled in misinformation as the owner of the site and was hastily thrown out New and confusing changesFlirting with controversy and causing concern to advertisers, some of whom stopped spending on the site.

His sudden and sometimes arbitrary decisions have pissed off a lot of Twitter core users and staffbut also some of his supporters who have pushed his ownership bid rooted in a “free speech”-driven approach.

Already on Sunday, Musk appeared to be losing support from some of those who supported his administration’s moves on Twitter over the new policy.

George Hotez, a software developer hired by Musk for an internship at the company after enthusiastically tweeting about the business mogul’s takeover, tweeted a link to his Instagram account Sunday night.

“If this is forbidden, this is not where I want to be anymore. This is far from freedom of speech,” he wrote in a tweet.

It was a far cry from the past weeks, when Musk was issued an ultimatum to Twitter employees saying they would need to stick to a “very aggressive” pace to build the new Twitter.

“This is the attitude that builds incredible things. Let all the people who don’t desire greatness leave,” Hotez wrote.

Meanwhile, Twitter users slammed Paul Graham’s comment, which praised Musk’s leadership, but also promoted his Mastodon handle on Twitter, screenshots on the site showed.

“This is the last straw,” he wrote, according to the photos posted on the site. Graham’s account was suspended shortly after.

That has prompted legions of users, including NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, to think about it. “This is bad policy and must be reversed,” he wrote in a tweet.

The moves put Musk on the defensive, and he appeared to be responding to a backlash, a rare move for the Twitter leader since he took office in October.

“Paul’s account will be restored soon,” he wrote in a tweet.

Twitter has cut most of its public relations team since Musk took over the company in October, and Musk did not respond to an emailed list of questions about the new rule earlier in the day.

Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX, has suspended and reinstated a slew of… Notable journalists Whoever said he violated the Twitter rules.

Musk unsubscribed from some reporters on Twitter. But their companies did not leave.

In the weeks since finalizing the sale of Twitter, Musk has rolled back enforcement of many of the site’s previous hate speech and misinformation policies, while in some cases turning to unscientific surveys to make decisions, such as reinstating former President Donald Trump.

The new policy banning links to certain other social media sites follows several high-profile Twitter users promoting their alternative accounts, often expressing the opinion that staying on Twitter might become unacceptable as Musk overhauls the platform.

The company’s announcement on Sunday sparked a debate about whether the move could create legal challenges for Twitter.

“This is the clearest declaration of vulnerability I have ever seen from a major US technology platform, and a transparent declaration of anticompetitive intent that GC They will set themselves on fire to prevent (if someone has filled this post in Twitter),” chirp Former Facebook Chief of Security Alex Stamos, using an acronym for “General Counsel.” He now leads the Stanford Internet Observatory, a “research, teaching, and policy program focused on misuse of information technology,” according to website.

In addition to linking to Facebook, Instagram, and Truth Social, the promotion of social media sites Mastodon, Tribel, Post, and Nostr is restricted under Twitter’s new policy announced earlier Sunday. Third party link aggregators such as linktr. ee And the lnk. bio Also prohibited. Inserting a social media address without a URL is not allowed.

Twitter said the first violation of this policy could range from a request to delete a tweet to temporarily locking an account. The company said that the account may be suspended if the violation is in the biography or account name. Subsequent violations of the policy can result in permanent suspension.

Twitter Sudden comment From several high-profile journalists last week, including one from the Washington Post, Musk also claimed they shared “essentially assassination coordinates” for him and his family — an apparent reference to tweets about the platform that suspended an account using public flight data to track Musk’s private jet. Twitter allowed several journalists to return to the platform on Saturday.

Musk also temporarily suspended and then reinstated a second Post reporter this weekend.

“Once again, the suspension occurred without warning, process, or explanation — this time as our reporter sought comment from Musk for a story,” Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzby said in a statement Sunday. “The Postal journalists must be reinstated immediately, without arbitrary conditions.”

And on Sunday, Musk was at the World Cup final in Qatar, tweeting posts from the match.

Kat Zakrewski contributed to this report.