Twitter Amends Rules to Crack Down on Abusive Conduct

Twitter recently publicized an update to its rules which clarified what the social media company considers “abusive behavior and hateful conduct.”

Twitter’s director of Trust and Safety, Megan Cristina, made a major announcement on Tuesday that told the company it won’t tolerate rude behavior of the user. “As always, we embrace and encourage diverse opinions and beliefs — but we will continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into abuse,” Cristina wrote.

The rule clearly stated that any user can’t promote violence or attempt to threaten anyone directly or indirectly on the basis of their caste, race, disease, disability, age, etc. Accounts violating all of these rules and others will be blocked and suspended immediately.

The current update is the result of the revisions of Twitter’s much-criticized abuse policy. Earlier in February, the former Twitter’s CEO, Dick Costolo mentioned in an internal memo that he was ashamed how the company was dealing with trolls and harassments. Further in March, Twitter introduced new tools for reporting and blocking harassing and abusive tweets including a quality filter that eliminates threating comment from the timeline. This feature was available only for some verified users.

Later in April, the company made amendments in the policy to prohibit acts that promote violence. Earlier it only barred specific and direct threats. The newest rules introduced were overwhelming for most especially those who always had a problem that the company isn’t strict for people who harass.