Twitter’s controversial new policy limiting the promotion of other social media platforms caught the attention of CNN Jim Acosta in his sights, and it was applied to him retroactively, locking his account hours before the policy was announced on Sunday.
The new policy, which was posted by the @TwitterSupport account in a short thread at 12:37 p.m. ET on Sunday, restricted “certain social media platforms from being promoted on Twitter for free,” specifically naming “Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon , Truth Social, Tribel , Nostr and Post. Prohibited activities included tricking your Twitter followers into following you on another platform or posting links to your username on online spaces other than Twitter, including typing the link as “dot com” or other abbreviated language.
The announcement follows a particularly eventful week in “Chief Twit” by Elon Musk as the owner of Twitter, many Twitter users expressing their frustration with its decisions by posting tweets and changing their profiles to promote their accounts on other competing platforms.
CNN Newsroom Weekend anchor Acosta was among those who changed his Twitter profile, changing his name to read as “Jim Acosta is also on Post and Mastodon” a few days ago.
Screenshot via Twitter.
He also posted several tweets encouraging his followers to follow him on these other platforms.
I just signed up for Mastodon. I cannot share my Mastodon account on Twitter. But I can still do it,” he tweeted on Friday with a shrugging emoji and a screenshot of his Mastodon profile, since Twitter had begun restricting Mastodon links as “harmful,” a designation previously seen. most commonly with phishing and scam links. A later tweet said, “I mean I guess I can do it too,” with a hand emoji pointing at his username referring to the other accounts.
The first of these tweets has been deleted by Twitter and is no longer visible on the platform, only a note stating: “This Tweet has violated the Twitter rules”.
Screenshot via Twitter.
The deleted tweet can be viewed in multiple screenshots Acosta’s Twitter profile archive on The Wayback Machine, as seen in the screenshot below:
Screenshot via The Wayback Machine.
On Sunday, Acosta interviewed Business Intern journalist Linette Lopez, which has cast a very critical eye on Musk for years, particularly his leadership at Tesla and SpaceX. Lopez’s latest post, published Sunday morning, takes aim at Elon’s “outdated playbook” to predict that his “bullying” management style will eventually set Twitter “on fire.”
Lopez was one of the reporters whose Twitter accounts were suspended this week and she has yet to get her account back.
Acosta started off the segment by mentioning Twitter’s new policy and revealing how it directly affected him.
“I should note that my own account was locked overnight by Twitter,” he said, explaining how one of his tweets violated the new policy – but hours. before Twitter had publicly announced the new rule. A CNN source pointed out how Acosta’s account was retroactively locked and noted that they had appealed.
“I woke up this morning and my account was locked,” Acosta continued. “I’m still trying to fix the problem. It seems very arbitrary and a bit frantic.
“What people really need to understand about what’s happening on Twitter right now is that it’s driven by Elon’s feelings, not business model thinking,” Lopez said, noting that “power users” were the people who generate content. . for the platform “for free” and “to make the site worth visiting”, but Musk had thrown these users “right and left”.
It was “not great for Twitter as a business,” Lopez added, saying that in his experience investigating Musk, it was an example of him relying on “emotional decision-making.”
“It’s almost like his identity is spreading all over the internet and Twitter,” she said.
Acosta and Lopez also discussed Musk’s recent accusations that reporters “doxxed” him and then his own tweets on Sunday showing he was at the World Cup in Qatar.
Musk’s tweet was “in football terms, it’s sort of an own goal,” Acosta said, objecting to people tweeting his location but then posting it.
What reporters had posted “wasn’t his exact real-time location at all,” Lopez noted. That’s how Elon feels. It’s not about rules. Elon is someone who loves law and order, as long as he makes the laws and gives the orders.
“We’re going to see a lot of hypocrisy here and that’s not going to change,” she said, pointing to her history of “bullying people” and “making erratic judgments and grandiose promises that are never, ever kept. “.
“There won’t be a time when Elon becomes a true CEO,” Lopez predicted. “It’s a bit like waiting for Donald Trump to be presidential. It will never happen.
Watch the video above, via CNN.
UPDATE 11 PM ET: the mother of musk, maye musk, seems to be on Acosta’s side. She tweeted a screenshot of the CNN anchor’s tweet referencing his show on Saturday and how he “would tell you all about Post and Mastodon,” and added the caption, “Who’s OK with this tweet be allowed?”
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