“Should I log out of Twitter?” Elon Musk is forcing users to vote on their fate
Elon Musk asked Twitter users on Monday night whether he would step down from the company he bought for more than $40 billion. “Should I retire as head of Twitter? I will follow the results of this survey,” the American billionaire tweeted, offering network users to simply vote “yes” or “no”.
Three hours after it was posted online, more than 9 million internet users voted and more than 55% “yes” won. The survey must end within twelve hours of being posted online. “Be careful what you wish for, because you can get it,” Elon Musk replied, adding that he had no “successor” and that “nobody who can really keep Twitter alive wants one.”
Prohibition of sharing links with competitors
Earlier, Twitter announced that it will ban its users from posting links to competing social networks. “Twitter no longer allows free promotion of certain social networks on Twitter,” the platform announced. Seven competitors are affected: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr. Also, “connect aggregators to social networks like linktr.ee, lnk.bio” is mentioned.
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For example, tweeting “Thank you for following me @Identifier on Instagram” is prohibited. Highlighting their latest Instagram photo or Facebook post exposes a Twitter user to account suspension. And if he mentions one of his other accounts in his bio or under his own name, the penalty is the same, the network warns.
“If the violation remains an isolated act or a first violation, we may take a number of actions, ranging from deleting one or more tweets to temporarily blocking accounts,” Twitter said in a statement. But violators are warned: “Any repeat violation will result in permanent suspension.”
These new rules are being announced as many Twitter users have recently said they are considering moving to other platforms, which likely worries the San Francisco-based company’s new boss. The change also caused misunderstanding of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who left in 2021. He soberly tweeted: “Why?”.
Elon Musk made the decision after some accounts, including investor Paul Graham’s, were suspended under the new policy. He tweeted that instead of targeting individual tweets, the policy would be limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s ‘primary’ purpose is to promote competitors.”
He further claimed: “There will be votes for major policy changes in the future. My excuses. This will not happen again.” He appears to have followed through on the letter by putting his future at the company to a vote.
Journalist accounts were suspended, then restored
Self-proclaimed defender of free speech, Elon Musk’s Twitter moderation rules have raised concerns after being bought by the boss of Tesla and SpaceX for $44 billion at the end of October.
He deleted and then restored the accounts of several American journalists in recent days, CNN. New York Times and Washington post especially the reaction of the European Union and the UN. The vice president of the European Commission even threatened him with sanctions.
On Wednesday, the multibillionaire first suspended the @elonjet account that automatically reported the routes of his private jet, then the accounts of journalists who tweeted about the decision, accusing them of putting his family at risk. These were restored on Saturday, but some said they needed to remove some posts if they wanted to fully use the platform.
And on Saturday evening, from a journalist’s Twitter account Washington post, Taylor Lorenz, in turn, was suspended for several hours. “Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account,” said a journalist covering the technology sector Washington post. His account was restored on Sunday. The multi-billionaire head of the platform announced on Twitter earlier in the day that it was “temporarily suspended due to the earlier disclosure of personal information of this account.”
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