Last week, Elon Musk also engaged in a rift with journalists. The platform banned a number of accounts belonging to journalists from major publications like the Washington Post and CNN.
On Sunday, December 18, social media giant Twitter announced that it would block accounts “created solely” to promote other social media platforms. A thread from Twitter support read that the company “will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames”. This involved accounts promoting Facebook, Instagram, Truth Social, Mastodon, Nostr, Tribel, and Post.
New Social Media Policy Introduced by Twitter
The announcement signaled a shift towards a more closed environment and received a lot of flak from users worldwide. Besides, the decision also led to a suspension of a prominent account forcing Musk to intervene. The billionaire said that he would adjust the policy, just hours after its release. Interestingly, the Twitter support team has removed the official announcement thread from the handle.
Since his takeover of Twitter, Elon Musk has faced strong criticism for introducing some sweeping changes on the platform. Initially, he fired half of the Twitter staff and lifted restrictions on some of the previously barred accounts.
Also, since the Twitter acquisition, a majority of Musk’s time has gone to restructuring the platform. Some of his followers have asked him to refocus on Tesla, whose share price has been plummeting recently.
Last week, Elon Musk also engaged in a rift with journalists. The platform banned a number of accounts belonging to journalists from major publications like the Washington Post and CNN. Musk alleged that these journalists were doxxing his location. However, this move from Twitter and Musk faced condemnation from the likes of the American Civil Liberties Union. The United Nations has also referred to it as “dangerous precedent”.
Elon Musk Offers to Step Down
On Sunday, Elon Musk conducted a Twitter poll asking whether he should step down as the CEO of Twitter. He also said that he would abide by the results of the poll.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
The poll has some three hours left and has already garnered 14.8 million votes. However, as of press time, 57% of the people have voted “YES”. On the question of finding a new CEO, Musk added that “the question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive”.
After the recent incident over policy changes, Elon Musk has decided to get his act right. “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again,” wrote he.
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