Twitter to enforce new rules against online abuse and violence

Twitter says it will begin to apply new rules related to how it handles hateful conduct and abusive behavior taking place on its plan. The changes are a part of the company’s broader agenda to craft new policies concentrated on reducing the amount of violence, hate speech, abuse, and harassment.


“Any tool that enables censorship online can be used against potentially everyone — regardless of ideology,” said Emma Llansó, the director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology.


Twitter’s safety team said, “If an account’s profile information includes a violent threat or multiple slurs, epithets, racist or sexist tropes, incites fear, or reduces someone to less than human, it will be permanently suspended. We consider hateful imagery to be logos, symbols or images whose purpose is to promote hostility and malice against others based on their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity/national origin.”


Twitter wrote in its announcement Monday, “Accounts that affiliate with organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes” will be suspended. While Twitter has begun its policy enforcement, it noted that it may still make some mistakes. The company added that it’s also working on a robust appeals process for those who are flagged.

Stay tuned for more updates.