Twitter bans account promotion on other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Truth Social, and Instagram.

Twitter announced Sunday that users will no longer be able to promote their accounts via at least seven other social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, Truth Social and Instagram.

The new policy After Elon Musk was appointed CEO of Twitter, many users started posting links to their accounts onto other websites. reinstatement of far-right accounts, suspension of journalists mass layoffs.

“We know that many of our users are active across other social media platforms. Twitter Support will no longer allow promotion on certain social media platforms for free. tweeted Sunday.

“Specifically we will delete accounts created solely to promote other social platforms and content which contains links or usernames of the following platforms: Facebook and Instagram, Mastodon and Truth Social, Tribel. Nostr. and Post.” The post continued.

It will also ban third party link aggregators such as linktr.ee or lnk.bio. said, adding that it will also seek to remove users who try to circumvent the rules by spelling out “dot” and sharing screenshots of their handles on prohibited platforms, among other means to get around the restrictions.

The policy, the most significant change to Twitter under Musk, is among the most restrictive of any social media platforms’ policies in how it limits what users can post. Other social media companies have few, if any, rules about users’ posting links to their accounts on other platforms.

Musk posted a tweet contradicting the policy just hours after it was announced on Sunday. that said“Casually sharing links is fine, but not more relentlessly advertising competitors for free.”

Musk also offered an apology for the sudden policy change that occurred after weeks of chaos since his Oct. 27 acquisition. Twitter has seen thousands of employees laid off or expelled since then. More than half of its workforce was affected by the failure to implement paid verification. A half-dozen journalists were also suspended. They were restored late Friday.

“Going forward, there’ll be a vote to make major policy changes,” Musk tweeted Sunday. “My apologies. Won’t happen again.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if Musk meant the results of Twitter surveys, which he referenced when he reinstated Trump’s account and stopped the suspensions of journalists’ accounts.

These polls are straw polls. They are not comparable to scientific public research on the wishes of a specific population.

Twitter has never released an estimate of the number of inauthentic and malicious automated accounts (or “bots”) on the platform. These accounts can vote in polls.

Twitter did not respond immediately to questions.

Noam Bardin (CEO of Post) tried to get users to visit the site after the announcement.

Bardin explains, “We make it simple to add all of your social media links into your profile because we don’t use just one platform.” tweetedAdd “Freedom = Choice”

Other companies that are subject to the policy did not respond immediately to our requests for comment.

Twitter’s rule changes left out some major social media platforms, most notably TikTok. TikTok is owned and controlled by the Communist Party of China by the Chinese company ByteDance. according to company insiders and critics. Musk has become increasingly prominent. called out His cozy relationship Since he took control of Twitter, he has been in contact with China.

Reddit, Twitch and Telegram are all exempted from the new policy.

Twitter announced the change at Sunday’s World Cup final, Musk attended and tweets from. He was pictured Jared Kushner (son-in-law to former President Donald Trump), is sitting next to him. founded Truth SocialThis was part of the rule amendment.

Twitter’s new rules are an addition to an already chaotic period for it and its new owner. suspended and reinstated some journalists These days have been marked by a sudden rule modification that focused on the dissemination of information about private jet flights.

The Federal Trade Commission oversees anti-competitive actions by companies and the European Union. This rule could be subject to governmental scrutiny. rules about how tech companies compete with one another. A spokeswoman said the FTC had no comment on Twitter’s new policy.

Twitter stated that first-time violators may be asked to delete their tweets or have their accounts locked. “Any subsequent offenses will result a permanent suspension.” Users who mention or link to other social media accounts or accounts names in their bios and account names will have their accounts removed.

Users can still cross-post content from other websites, and users can also link or use usernames to social media platforms that aren’t subject to the ban. said. Users who mistakenly believe that their accounts have been suspended or locked, can appealTwitter has been added.

Jack Dorsey (Twitter co-founder, former CEO) questioned the move. responding The thread explains the new policy using “Why?” He also tweeted the following: said This policy is “not logical.”

Other tech professionals also criticised the move. Aaron Levie is the CEO of cloud storage company Box. tweeted, “This is just sad.” Benedict Evans, a London-based tech analyst, tweeted that the move was “absolutely pathetic.”

The director of Stanford University’s Internet Observatory, Alex Stamos, a former chief security officer for Facebook, tweeted that the new policy is “the clearest declaration of weakness I’ve ever seen from a major US tech platform, and a transparent declaration of anticompetitive intent.”

Paul Graham, a popular venture capitalist, stated that the rule change had forced him to quit Twitter. “This is the last straw,” he tweetedHe noted that his Mastodon account link was on his website. “I give up.”

Graham’s account was closed hours later.

Taylor Lorenz was a Washington Post tech columnist, and an online culture columnist. On Saturday night, she was suspended from Twitter after tweeting at Musk for comment. She has since been reinstated and said that she couldn’t imagine a worse policy to allow content creators to visit your site.

“People don’t want to be locked in a jail and that is what Musk is doing,” she told NBC News. “He’s closing the doors and trying to keep people in.”

Lorenz had a previous tweet pinned to the profile of her that promoted her accounts at other sites, even ones that are banned now. She said that the tweet was taken down as soon as Lorenz was reinstated. This was just around the time that the company announced their new policy.

Musk had not yet responded to the change on Sunday afternoon. However many users were sharing previous tweets that Musk sent, which could be considered criticism of the new policy.

His tweet from June is most memorable. read: “The 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!”

This article was first published on NBCNews.com