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CNN correspondent and host Jim Acosta has become one of the latest left-leaning journalists caught up in Twitter’s rule changes. On Sunday, Acosta explained the situation in an interview with Insider columnist Linette Lopez, whose account has also been suspended.
The CNN host said that he was locked out of his account after he promoted accounts of his on other social media platforms such as Post and Mastodon.
“One of my tweets was found to have violated Twitter’s new rule about promoting other sites,” he said, noting later that he is “still trying to sort it out.”
“I’m still trying to sort it out.” CNN Anchor Jim Acosta reveals his Twitter account has been locked. (Video: CNN) pic.twitter.com/MI0Lk6eKvB
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) December 19, 2022
The Daily Wire added:
Acosta, who made a name for himself during the last administration clashing with former President Donald Trump, was referring to a new policy that was established as users shared links to their accounts on other social media sites during a turbulent time for Twitter under Musk’s leadership.
“We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter,” Twitter support announced on Sunday.
“Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post,” the account added in a tweet that has since been deleted.
Musk eventually apologized: “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.”
“We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter,” the company noted in a statement. “Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post.”
The platform added that it would “remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms, such as linking out (i.e. using URLs) … or providing your handle without a URL” to the aforementioned platforms or to “3rd-party social media link aggregators such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio.”
“Additionally, any attempts to bypass restrictions on external links to the above prohibited social media platforms through technical or non-technical means (e.g. URL cloaking, plaintext obfuscation) is in violation of this policy,” the statement noted further. “This includes, but is not limited to, spelling out ‘dot’ for social media platforms that use ‘.’ in the names to avoid URL creation, or sharing screenshots of your handle on a prohibited social media platform.”
The statement went on to say that cross-posting from different platforms isn’t a violation of the policy, even from the sites that were listed. The company also said it would authorize users to pay to promote their social media accounts on other platforms.
Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz, the journalist who doxed the Libs of TikTok account on Twitter, has also been suspended from Twitter, and she is blaming CEO Elon Musk.
She said that she did not violate Twitter’s Terms of Service and claimed that she was suspended because she asked for Musk’s comment on a story.
“Earlier tonight, Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account,” she said on her Substack account.
“I only had three tweets live on my account when it was banned. Two were promoting my social media profiles on other platforms,” she said before promoting those accounts, “and one was the tweet below where I asked Musk for comment.
“My colleague Drew Harwell, who has also been suspended, and I have been working on a story involving Musk and were hoping to get comment from him. We attempted to reach him several times through email over the past few days. At 8:30pm EST I tried reaching out for comment on Twitter by posting this,” she said before showing her tweet.
“Hi Elon, @drewhartwell and I sent you a couple emails about this. We’ve learned some information that we’d like to share and discuss with you. We’re taking this very seriously and want to ensure this is pursued in the right way. Thanks,” the now-deleted tweet said.
“When I went to log in and see if he had responded to our query, I was suspended. I received zero communication from the company on why I was suspended or what terms I violated,” Lorenz noted further.
