Twitter suspends Mastodon's account and prevents links to Mastodon servers from being tweeted or added to profile bios, calling them “harmful” and “malware”

A day after Twitter crafted a new policy to explain its decision to ban an account that tracks Elon Musk's private jet, the fallout continues.

TechCrunch 2022-12-16 Taylor Hatmaker

Context & Ripple Effects

Twitter's action against Mastodon followed its suspension of the @ElonJet tracker and a revised policy targeting accounts that share live-location information. Blocking Mastodon links turned an account-enforcement dispute into a restriction on where users could direct their audiences.

The move was quickly challenged by Twitter's reversal on a broader ban on promoting other social platforms, while legal experts identified potential scrutiny over Mastodon-link blocking. Later, Twitter also cut off Movetodon, a service built to help users find Twitter contacts on Mastodon.

First-order effects

Mastodon loses a direct discovery and account-linking channel inside Twitter, while Twitter users cannot use tweets or bios to point followers to Mastodon servers.
Twitter's enforcement choices now affect tools around the two networks as well as accounts: Movetodon's API cutoff removes a route for users to rebuild their Twitter follow graph on Mastodon.

Second-order effects

Twitter's reversal of its wider cross-platform promotion policy makes the Mastodon restriction a more visible test of how selectively Twitter applies rules governing outbound links.
Regulatory attention raised by the Mastodon-link block increases the compliance stakes when Twitter labels a competing service harmful or malware without the surrounding coverage identifying a technical basis.

Third-order effects

If platforms use link, profile, and API controls together to impede user migration, social-network competition shifts from feature rivalry toward control of audience portability.
The episode points to distribution-layer governance becoming a competitive lever: restrictions aimed at individual safety or policy enforcement can also determine which rival networks users can discover and join.

The trend: Social platforms are increasingly using account rules, outbound-link controls, and API access to govern user portability to competing networks.

Discussion

The Verge Jay Peters on mastodon
Twitter is blocking links to Mastodon
Techdirt Mike Masnick on mastodon
Elon's Commitment To Free Speech Rapidly Replaced By His Commitment To Blatant Hypocrisy: Bans The JoinMastodon Account
Rolling Stone Charisma Madarang on mastodon
Elon Musk's Twitter Bans and Blocks Links to Rival Mastodon
The Hill Jared Gans on mastodon
Twitter suspends Mastodon's official account
Barron's Online Adam Clark on mastodon
Musk's Twitter Suspends Accounts of Some Journalists and Rival Mastodon
Music Ally Stuart Dredge on mastodon
Twitter blocks Mastodon links and suspends prominent journalists
@danyork@mastodon.social Dan York on mastodon
mmasnick Great article! But I'm going with the “he's nervous” thinking because I just discovered that …
@qjurecic@mastodon.social Quinta Jurecic on mastodon
Ironically, the Great Banning is the first time that Mastodon has felt like it's fulfilling …
@atomicpoet@mastodon.social Chris Trottier on mastodon
Aaaaand Mastodon sign-ups are spiking again!
@Gargron@mastodon.social Eugen Rochko on mastodon
What a thing to wake up to
TechSpot Rob Thubron on mastodon
Twitter suspends accounts of several journalists, blocks Mastodon following Elon Musk doxxing row
@atomicpoet@mastodon.social Chris Trottier on mastodon
Every journalist should now know that a free and open Internet means a free and open Press.
@thewolflawyer@mastodon.social Wolf Lawyer on mastodon
danyork @mmasnick I tried to add my Mastodon profile to my twitter bio before I left. It's malware apparently.
@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social on mastodon
Me three weeks ago: man, it's great so many tech folks are here, but it's gonna be a nightmare to get …
@repdonbeyer Rep. Don Beyer on x
Twitter is now attempting to prevent its users from navigating to the official social media accounts of elected officials on other platforms: https://twitter.com/...
@danluu Dan Luu on x
Editing my name or description to add a or change a mastodon link now returns: “Account update failed: Description is considered malware.” This seems totally fine at this point, since most people I follow are now primarily posting to Mastodon. https://twitter.com/...
@b_fung Brian Fung on x
Some Twitter users have reported that attempts to share Mastodon URLs now results in those links being marked as unsafe. I just tested it myself using an alt account and confirmed it — Twitter blocked me from sharing the link. https://twitter.com/...
@oneunderscore__ Ben Collins on x
Twitter is preventing users from linking to their Mastodon accounts. Mine is at mastodon(.)social/@oneunderscore__ https://twitter.com/...
@jake_k Jake Kastrenakes on x
twitter is now blocking links to at least a dozen mastodon servers — this whole free speech thing is not going well https://www.theverge.com/...
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
jeez i didn't realize all mastodon links were banned lol what a friggin jabroni https://twitter.com/...
@bendobrown Benjamin Strick on x
If you are wondering what's been suspended recently from Twitter, here's a list: - Platform @joinmastodon - Flight tracker @adsbexchange - @elonjet & @JxckSweeney - Prominent journalists @donie @webster @rmac18 @atrupar @W7VOA @drewharwell @mattbinder @micahflee https://twitter.c…
@mikaelthalen Mikael Thalen on x
Musk is now arguing that sharing links to the Mastodon account of ElonJet, which uses publicly available radar data to track his private jet, is akin to giving out “assassination coordinates.” https://twitter.com/...
@anonymousnn3 @anonymousnn3 on x
The official twitter account of Mastodon has been suspended. https://twitter.com/...
@adambienkov Adam Bienkov on x
“Free speech absolutist” Elon Musk has now banned Mastodon from Twitter and Twitter is declaring any link to there as “unsafe” https://twitter.com/...
@repdonbeyer Rep. Don Beyer on x
The link is not malicious, and clicking “continue” will simply take you to my account on Mastodon. Alternatively, you can find my account there at @RepDonBeyer@mas.to https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life @carnage4life on x
If links to Mastodon are being blocked, I guess that answers the question on whether usage metrics are declining.
@maxkennerly Max Kennerly on x
Took only a month for Elon to change his view on Mastodon from being joke worthy to posing such a grave threat to Twitter that he's blocking every link to every server he can find. https://twitter.com/...
@rstephens Robert Stephens on x
Here comes the Power of Spite. Great new for Mastodon. https://twitter.com/...
@emptywheel @emptywheel on x
The reason y'all should get an account at Mastodon and not Post is bc it'll make Elmo cry.
@oneunderscore__ Ben Collins on x
Mastodon's pretty... pretty good tonight.
@markos Markos Moulitsas on x
For all the “LOL Mastodon” talk by @ElonMusk's cryptobros, Twitter wouldn't ban links to it unless he was actually worried. That's not a sign of confidence in his own product
@ruskin147 Rory Cellan-Jones on x
Confirming that Twitter is blocking Mastodon links. Isn't that anticompetitive behaviour? Hi @FCC https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
So linking to mastodon appears now forbidden. The Mastodon account is fully suspended. If you share on Twitter that it's still possible to go to Mastodon and search for the Elon+Jet account and look up publicly available info then I presume it's ok. But 🤷🏻‍♂️ - his platform, rule…
@bfriedmandc Brandon Friedman on x
Nope. Tried again. Twitter will not allow me to post a tweet containing a Mastodon link. https://twitter.com/...
@pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings on x
It's very simple, every time you post a link to mastodon, an assassin somewhere in the US gets an antiaircraft missile
@nycsouthpaw @nycsouthpaw on x
“After Mastodon used Twitter to promote Mr. Sweeney's new account on Thursday, Twitter suspended Mastodon's account. As some journalists shared the news of Mastodon's suspension, their own accounts were suspended.”
@dougjballoon @dougjballoon on x
So Long, Farewell Elon Musk is the hottest Nazi since Rolf, and he's sent his critics clambering up the Alps to Post and Mastodon. Will his midlife crisis make him a lonely goat-heard or send him into the arms of someone sixteen going on seventeen? by Maureen Dowd
@gabrielsnyder Gabriel Snyder on x
Oh hilarious: Mastodon links are now considered “malware” and “spammy” ... you can find me at @gs(at)mas(dot)to https://twitter.com/...
@astroehlein Andrew Stroehlein on x
Twitter has also suspended the account of its rival, Mastodon. ⚠️ And look at this tweet I just tried to do but which got rejected - look at the reason: Twitter doesn't even allow you to link to Mastodon in tweets now... All more reasons for you to join Mastodon... https://twitte…
@crecenteb Brian Crecente on x
Elon Musk banned the official #Mastodon account. This is days after marking some links to Mastodon as sensitive. Loving the Freedom of Speech, Elon. https://twitter.com/...
@samgustin Sam Gustin on x
And in doing so, breaking a key component of internet architecture: the hyperlink. With completely spurious and bogus “unsafe link” notices. https://twitter.com/...

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