Twitter to suspend accounts linking to other social media sites

He then launched a Twitter poll, surveying users on whether he should step down. Musk had abided by past polls, despite them being unscientific and unrepresentative.

“Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.” he wrote. He added shortly after: “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.”

Respondents leaned heavily toward “Yes” in Musk’s poll, indicating Musk should step down, after nearly an hour of voting: 58 percent of more than 3 million votes were in favor of him handing over the reins. The poll was set to expire Monday morning prior to the opening of the stock market, during a period when Tesla’s stock — the source of much of Musk’s net worth — has plunged. Investors have said Musk stepping aside from Twitter would improve Tesla’s outlook

Musk’s sudden reversal came after Twitter earlier in the day said it would start suspending accounts linking to “prohibited platforms” such as Facebook and Instagram if those accounts are “used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform,” according to the announcement Sunday.

The policy, dated this month and tweeted Sunday afternoon, says tweets promoting accounts on some sites may be removed if users urge their Twitter followers to join them elsewhere.

“At both the tweet level and the account level, we will remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms,” the policy says. It lists several examples of such social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, which former president Donald Trump co-founded.

Musk’s ownership of Twitter — which he bought in October for $44 billion — has plunged the site into turmoil. He ousted the company’s executives and installed a team of loyalists, laid off more than half the staff and dialed back Twitter’s content moderation. He has engaged in misinformation as the site’s owner and hastily rolled out new and confusing changes, courting controversy and alarming advertisers, some of whom paused their spending on the site.

His sudden and sometimes arbitrary decisions have grated on many of Twitter’s core users and staff, but also some of his own supporters who pushed his ownership bid rooted in a “free speech” driven approach.

Already Sunday, Musk appeared to be losing the support…