Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Today's The Day: Twitter To Start Purging Users And Prevent "Certain Content From Trending"

Twitter will begin suspending accounts which engage in "hateful conduct" or affiliate with organizations which "use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes" both on and off the platform, following a November announcement. The new rules apply to whatever Twitter deems "hateful," including "hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header." 

Moreover, Twitter will officially begin restricting "trending" content, to wit:

At times, we may prevent certain content from trending.

While many conservative Twitter users have suffered unfair account suspensions, mysterious drops in retweets and likes on controversial tweets, overnight drops in follower count, and unexplained disappearances of trending topics which paint liberals in a bad light, Twitter's new rules effectively allow the social media giant to openly engage in censorship without repercussion. 

Abusive Behavior

We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.

Context matters when evaluating for abusive behavior and determining appropriate enforcement actions. Factors we may take into consideration include, but are not limited to whether:


  • the behavior is targeted at an individual or group of people;
  • the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander;
  • the behavior is newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest.


Read the entire article