Twitter ’s locking the hatches to keep users from jumping off its sink ship .
former Thursday even the site reportedly get blank out links to popular server atMastodon , Twitter ’s emerging competition . Twitter also suspended Mastodon ’s prescribed Twitter varlet . The cylinder block occurred just hours after Twitter start purging the accounts of prominent diarist who ’ve indite critically about owner Elon Musk in the past .
novel : Twitter suspended competitor#Mastodon ’s account .
Screenshot:Elon Musk
This is move to get worse.pic.twitter.com/Gp2L49tPgh
— John Scott - Railton ( @jsrailton)December 16 , 2022
user who seek to chop-chop nip out Mastodon links will reportedly receive an mistake substance from Twitter saying it , “ can not complete this petition because this tie-in has been identified by Twitter as being potentially harmful . ” The Verge says , harmonize toits testing , Twitter seem to be block links out to the original mastodon.social server and at least 10 other domains .
mastodon contact wo n’t squeeze at all nowpic.twitter.com/uo8EiM1wRH
— Taylor Hatmaker ( @tayhatmaker)December 16 , 2022
Anyone who has drop even a few moments on Twitter over the past calendar month have probably seen some Mastodon links trickle into their feeds . The Twitter - alternative , previously a belittled , comparatively corner religious service , claimsit drew in nearly half a million users in the first two weeks after Musk took over the helm at Twitter . research worker , activists , journalists , and an categorisation of other alien Twitter users fled to the platform after Musk , well , essentially turned Twitter into the very “ free - for - all hellscape , ” he said he wanted to nullify . Some Twitter drug user worked to creatively trip the light fantastic toe around the link bans on Friday by sum a Mastodon profile link up to their account name or bios .
Twitter did not reply to Gizmodo ’s petition for commentary about the Mastodon blocks , though it ’s worth mark Twitter ’s communications teamreportedlyendured major cuts as part of the society ’s estimate 3,700 personal layoff .
Mastodon ’s official account appears to have gotten the boot concisely after it post a Mastodon connexion refer to the now ban ElonJet account . That account , which tracked the location of Musk ’s private jet , was suspend from Twitter this week , then reinstated , and thensuspended againfor allegedly go against Twitter ’s rules . While it ’s unclear what actual Twitter rules ElonJet desecrate , Musk take to Twitter to say “ tangible - time posting of someone else ’s localization violates doxxing policy . ” Twitter also suspended the ElonJet ’s creator , a 20 - twelvemonth - previous college student appoint Jack Sweeney . Musk hadpreviouslytried to pay Sweeney $ 5,000 to voluntarily off the account .
The Twitter purge did n’t stop with ElonJet though . On Thursday Twitterbannedthe explanation of at least nine prominent journalists , most of which had antecedently written article decisive of Musk . While it ’s ill-defined exactly why those accounts were for good suspended , all of them appear to have tweeted about the ElonJet account .
Musk appeared to address some of the prohibition in a serial of tweets .
“ If anyone posted real - time locations & computer address of NYT reporters , FBI would be investigating , there ’d be hearing on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy ! ” Musk wrote . In a separate tweet , the billionaire said , “ Criticizing me all mean solar day long is totally fine , but doxxing my literal - sentence location and scupper my family is not . ”
Musk then went on to make one of his now all too conversant polls , apparently depart it up to Twitter ’s more and more caustic user base to decide whether or not to reestablish extremity of the press . At the time of writing , 43 % of respondent pronounce Twitter should restore the accounts immediately . 14.4 % allege the ban should remain for seven more days while 38.1 % simply said the bans should continue , “ longer . ” Musk deployed asimilarly“scientific ” advance to decide whether or not to reestablish former president Donald Trump ’s report .
distressing , too many choice . Will remodel poll .
— Elon Musk ( @elonmusk)December 16 , 2022
If that was n’t all already weird enough , Musk apparently joined a Twitter spaces event with the banned diarist after they discovered a workaround that let ban accounts get together the societal audio feature film . During the call , Musk tried toexplainhis rationale for the niggling Bachelor of Arts in Nursing before abruptly leaving the merging .
“ As I ’m sure everyone who ’s been doxxed would concur , drawing genuine - fourth dimension information about somebody ’s location is inappropriate and I think everyone on this call would not care that to be done to them , ” Musk said . “ And there ’s not go to be any preeminence in the future between journalists , so - called journalist , and regular the great unwashed . Everyone ’s break to be treated the same . ”
Not long after that call Twitter incapacitate its Spaces feature . It ’s unclear for now if it will ever return .
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present tense .
You May Also Like
