True, Twitter Just Yanked off Mastodon Links

This CEO got angry, now all of us must get rubbished.

Image by Darby Browning from Pixabay

All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lord Acton (1834–1902)

So much waters have flown under the bridge ever since Elon Musk took over as Twitter’s CEO.

Mr. Musk’s “reign of ___” (fill in the spaces) kicked off with cascades of less-than-salutary changes.

Nobody is begrudging the richest man on the planet doing as he pleases with his latest acquisition. The foreboding concern is that Elon’s unbridled arbitrariness could be a harbinger of ill winds, living none of us any good in its wake.

Nobody is begrudging the richest man on the planet doing as he pleases with his latest acquisition. The foreboding concern is that Elon’s unbridled arbitrariness could be a harbinger of ill-winds, living none of us any good in its wake.

From summarily laying off thousands of employees, to sacking engineers who won’t kowtow to him, and wrangling over Twitter’s blue seal for certified accounts, there is no end in sight to the comedy of errors and faux passes.

Among its many casualties, Eli Lilly had its corporate Twitter account impersonated, leading to a drop in the pharmaceutical giant’s stock.

It’s all in the news. Now, none of Elon’s moves surprises anyone anymore.

Once regarded as a “I must be in it” platform for corporations and major brands, Twitter has now become a caveat emptor high-risk platform since Elon Musk’s coronation at Twitter.

Many organizations and individuals are quietly bailing out of Twitter in their numbers. Mastodon has been a favorite of aggrieved Twitter users.

I saw the need to have a “backup Twitter account” even before Elon consummated his purchase. Through my searches, Mastodon came up as the most promising and popular. I’ve since found out why this is true.

Transiting to Mastodon, the learning curve was not as seamless as the “old faithful” Twitter. But once I understood the “one Mastodon many servers” concept, my appreciation and active use of Mastodon ramped up overnight. I even wrote about my first time out riding on the Mastodon.

In the news, The Verge and several other media outlets reported the suspension of the Twitter accounts of several prominent journalists. The Verge also mentioned Twitter’s ban on Mastodon links. You can no longer add your Mastodon link to the top of your Twitter profile page.

Before the ban, my Twitter profile page was as shown below.

After the ban, I tried to add my Mastodon link to the top of my Twitter profile page. The message, “Account update failed: Description is considered malware” popped up.

Now, there is nothing to gain from distracting visitors with another link too many. Therefore, a day before the ban, I compressed my Medium and Substack links into Linktree. Only one link now effectively served where three and more used to be.

Just overnight, Twitter maliciously tagged Mastodon links as persona non grata.

Just imagine!

Some years back, a friend announced with panic, “have you heard, WhatsApp is about to shut down?” I assured him WhatsApp wasn’t closing shop and that even if it does, Telegram, Signal, and other apps were still around to fill up the void supposedly being left by WhatsApp (which wasn’t true.)

Now, I even prefer Mastodon over Twitter. I also revived my two years idle Reddit account and I’ve been enjoying both apps more than ever. Some of my Reddit posts have served as grist for fresh stories in Medium and Substack.

I even ran a poll on Reddit seeking to know users' reactions — should they wake up tomorrow to find out they have been locked out of Twitterdom.

For me, I won’t miss Twitter that much.

Some users may not have as much flexibility considering their vast throng of followers. Twitter has become entwined in its social media marketing and communication activities. Therefore, sudden cold drop-offs may spell huge losses for their businesses.

Now less exposed to the endless (and at times unavoidable) stream of toxicity and cyber wrangling on the bluebird app, I’ve found Reddit and Mastodon to be more engaging and enhancing — my productivity.

To not be at the receiving end of a gone-amok CEO’s manipulations, I’d rather not put all my eggs in one basket.

You may wish to follow my example.

Thank you for reading.

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This post was originally published on Medium

AFTERWORD: Twitter has now reversed this policy. You can now add other social media links to your Twitter profile page.