Twitter has now prohibited the “free promotion” of competing social media platforms on its platform.
In a new post on Twitter’s Help Center, the site announced that it will remove all Tweets and accounts that promote prohibited third-party social media platforms for free.
This includes providing your username or handle on these alternative sites, even without a URL link, or linking to any of the prohibited platforms.
These are the prohibited platforms:
- Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post, and Nostr
- 3rd-party social media link aggregators such as linktr.ee and lnk.bio
Twitter also provided examples of what it considers to be free advertising:
- “follow me @username on Instagram”
- “username@mastodon.social”
- “check out my profile on Facebook – facebook.com/username”
A violation of Twitter’s policy may result in the deletion of Tweets or a temporary suspension from the site.
Twitter also stated that any attempt to circumvent the aforementioned rules, such as spelling out “dot” to avoid URL creation or sharing screenshots of your handle on alternative sites, violates their new policy.
Twitter noted, however, that users are still permitted to “cross-post” content to Twitter, even from the above-listed prohibited sites. Paid advertisements and promotions for any of the restricted social networking sites are permitted.
The new policy is in response to Twitter’s recent ban on users sharing links to servers on Mastodon, a rising social media competitor, and the most recent change to the site since Elon Musk became CEO.