Twitter says it's putting an end to 'free promotion' of Facebook, Instagram, and more

• Twitter announced the end of 'free promotion' for certain social media platforms on Sunday.
• In a series of tweets, the company said users are no longer allowed to promote accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and more.
• Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asks, "Why?"

In a thread of tweets, Twitter's official support account announced its users are no longer allowed to promote their other social media accounts on the site.

The company said it would be putting an end to "free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter" in a series of tweets on Sunday and specifically named Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post as part of the prohibition.

—Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 18, 2022

Twitter co-founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, tweeted a one-word response to the change in policy.

—jack (@jack) December 18, 2022

"Chief Twit" Elon Musk seemed to indirectly answer Dorsey's query in a reply to one user Sunday afternoon. 

"You're free to speak, but you gotta pay to advertise. Sounds reasonable to me," the user wrote.

Musk replied: "Exactly."

According to one of the tweets from Twitter Support, accounts created only to promote those social platforms would be removed from Twitter. The company goes into further detail about the new policy on its Help Center site.

"We know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms; however, going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter," the site read.

The Help Center also lists examples of tweets that would violate the new rule. The following phrases are now likely to get your tweet removed and your Twitter account suspended.

"'follow me @username on Instagram'"

"'username@mastodon.social'"

"'check out my profile on Facebook - facebook.com/username'"

Although free promotion of the listed sites is prohibited, Twitter says cross-posting content from any platform and posting links or usernames from any platform not named is still OK.

The social media platform has undergone many changes since Musk's $44 billion takeover in late October. The tech billionaire has labeled himself a "free speech absolutist" and quickly made changes to the site that weren't well received by users – like paid-for verification via Twitter Blue.