French official fires warning shot at Elon Musk that new Twitter policy could open up 'criminal liability'

Twitter on Sunday announced a new policy about promotion of rival social media platforms -- and one French government official is warning the company that it could have major legal consequences.

In a Sunday afternoon post, the Twitter Support account stated that "we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter."

Twitter Support then specified that "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."

In response to this post, Éric Freyssinet, the deputy director of France's Cyberspace Gendarmerie Command, warned Twitter CEO Elon Musk that his company could lose protections against both civil and criminal legal liabilities if it really enforces this policy.

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"Any attempt to remove my tweets that link to my other social media accounts, not violating any law, would actually make Twitter an editorial media, and no longer a social media platform, with civil and criminal liability for *any* illegal content therein," he explained.

Musk first banned Mastadon's official account last week when it posted a link to an account on its site that tracks the location of Musk's private jet.

Sunday afternoon, however, was the first time the company floated a flat-out ban of promotions by other competitors.