Free speech on Twitter is dead, at least according to some Twitter users.

After the controversial banning of several journalists that met widespread concern from the international community that forced Elon Musk to reverse the suspensions, Twitter is once again doing something that would leave even more people concerned.

Twitter has a new policy that prevents users from creating accounts that are “used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform.” Apart from its threat towards free speech on the social media platform, the policy on its own also threatens the livelihoods and online presence of many of Twitter's users. Those who rely on their popularity on Twitter to get the word out about their other works are now potentially a target of Twitter's desperate ways to monetize the platform. While the current list of affected websites is short, currently only containing only Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, Post, and third-party social media link aggregators like linktr.ee and link.bio, this list could easily grow and get out of hand. Link aggregators specifically hold an important role in many online users' careers (especially for artists and content creators) as these serve as a sort of menu for their services.

No wonder Twitter users are pissed off, and no wonder that the tweet announcing the rules change has been ratioed. Many people have pointed out how tone deaf and how anti-consumer this move is.

https://twitter.com/slweeb/status/1604531362421264385

Others have pointed out how this blatant attempt to bar its users from actively promoting rival platforms screams insecurity about the social media platform's competitiveness.

There are those who pointed out the irony of Elon Musk‘s proclamations that he's a free speech absolutist now that his recent policies clearly don't align with that.

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Some tried to make fun of the announcement with memes and image macros.

And finally, there are those who pointed out the cowardice of Twitter trying to make the announcement while the World Cup was ongoing in hopes of it getting drowned down by the celebrations.

https://twitter.com/KetanJ0/status/1604553134051053568

Some might say that these reactions are over-reactions, but Elon Musk's track record with Twitter so far says otherwise.