Melbourne start-up Linktree lashes Elon Musk’s Twitter changes

A local start-up hits out after finding itself effectively banned under policy changes by Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk.

Linktree, the social media start-up which earlier this year hit unicorn status, has criticised a move from Twitter to restrict linking to other platforms, describing the new policy introduced by Elon Musk as antithetical to the free internet.

The Melbourne-based group last valued at $1.78bn, on Monday found itself swept up in the latest policy change by Mr Musk, who said he would no longer allow “promotion” of rival platforms such as Facebook and Mastodon.

“Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post,” Twitter said in a statement.

Those changes will effectively ban Linktree, which offers tools allowing users to share links across multiple platforms, along with other services like Lnk.Bio, both of which were named specifically in Twitter’s new “promotion of alternative social platforms policy”.

Linktree chief executive Alex Zaccaria said the ban was harmful in a statement emailed..

“The proposed update to Twitter’s policy, banning creators from linking to other platforms like Linktree, is at its very core anti-creator and antithetical to the open, free internet on which Twitter was founded,” Mr Zaccaria said in a statement on Monday.

“Linktree was created to democratise a creator’s presence: providing a free, easy, decentralised space for anyone to create, curate and own their digital universe. This move, banning platforms and limiting interoperability, has real life consequences for those who rely on Twitter to earn a living: its users.”

Forcing creators to be locked in a so-called walled garden destroys a creator’s chances for growth, monetisation and interoperability, Mr Zaccaria said.

“Doing this would hurt creators, not other large platforms. In fact, Linktree users drive almost twice as much traffic back to Twitter than Twitter drives to Linktree.

“Creators deserve to own their audience and community across all platforms. It’s their work, their voice and their community — not the platform’s. The ability to cross market audiences and platforms is essential to the modern creator.

Rival social media networks moved quickly to capitalise on the controversy. It’s unclear whether the policy changes will be permanent. Mr Musk apologised hours after putting the policy in place and wrote: “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.” He since started a poll asking users whether he should remain as Twitter CEO.

Over the weekend he reinstated the accounts of several high-profile US reporters including Ryan Mac of the New York Times, the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, after they were banned for what he said were breaches of Twitter’s new policy about revealing user’s locations. Mr Musk had claimed the journalists were sharing his “exact location in real-time”, though the bans led to an outcry from media organisations and civil liberties groups who claimed the suspensions were a threat to freedom of the press.

The billionaire briefly joined a Twitter Spaces audio chat hosted by technology reporters who were discussing their suspensions.

“If you dox, you get suspended. End of story,” Mr Musk said repeatedly, referring to the publication of private or identifying information about a particular individual on the internet, typically with malicious intent.

Linktree, meanwhile, has endured a difficult 2022, laying off nearly 20 per cent of its workforce in August in what’s been a challenging period for the Australian technology start-up sector. Thr company is one of the 300 most popular websites globally with 1.2 billion monthly views. Like other technology start-ups however, its valuation has come under pressure in recent months as the downturn in public markets has flowed to privately-held groups.

Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022