Verified users on Twitter have recently received a notification on its app that has advised them to only upload photos directly through the platform.
With companies, celebs and leading public figures all receiving the message, it is believed that the move could be part of a wider campaign by Twitter to push more multimedia traffic through its services.
The prominent accounts were sent an official alert that read:
“Post your photos directly on Twitter to make sure your fans always see them.”
However, some commentators believe that this could be a warning shot across the bow of third-party applications, such as Facebook-owned Instagram.
Many users instead use such photo sharing sites to upload their images, before posting a link to them on their Twitter news feed. As this draws traffic away from the platform, the microblogging site would like to cut down on the practice.
Instagram has itself made moves to limit Twitter’s capacity for multimedia content, with the firm having switched off mechanisms that would allow for users to post their Instagram pictures directly onto the blogging site. The move, which occurred in December of 2012, was seen by many as a way to drive traffic back to the photo sharing platform.
However, Twitter is also making a number of other changes to its multimedia services, including a video feature, which will be separate from its Vine platform. Last year, it also allowed for users to upload four images in a single post to its news feed, as well as to tag other members.
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