Twitter announced an expansion to its private information policy on Tuesday that bans the sharing of ‘private’ photos and videos of people without their consent.
The Twitter Safety team wrote in a blog post that although anyone can be impacted by private media being shared, it ‘can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents and members of minority communities.’
The blog post also states that Twitter needs a first-person report or report from an authorized representative in order to make the determination that the image or video has been shared without their permission.
And users who violate the new rule could be permanently banned from the platform.
The policy, however, excludes public figures, but applies if the sharing of media is to ‘harass, intimidate or use fear to silence them.’
Twitter announced an expansion to its private information policy on Tuesday that bans the sharing of ‘private’ photos and videos of people without their consent
Twitter, however, is not requiring consent from all individuals in a photo or video before its posted, but will take it down if a person shown requests it be removed.
The added rule is in addition to the existing private information policy that prohibits the sharing of people’s private information, such as phone numbers, addresses, and IDs.
‘There are growing concerns about the misuse of media and information that is not available elsewhere online as a tool to harass, intimidate, and reveal the identities of individuals,’ Twitter shared in the post.
‘Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm.
Twitter, however, is not requiring consent from all individuals in a photo or video before its posted, but will take it down if a person shown requests it be removed
‘The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.’
If Twitter is notified about media shared without permission, it says the photo or video will be removed or will take other actions that include downranking the visibility of the tweet in replies and search.
‘We will always try to assess the context in which the content is shared and, in such cases, we may allow the images or videos to remain on the service,’ Twitter wrote.
‘For instance, we would take into consideration whether the image is publicly available and/or is being covered by mainstream/traditional media (newspapers, TV channels, online news sites), or if a particular image and the accompanying tweet text adds value to the public discourse, is being shared in public interest, or is relevant to the community.’
The update comes just a day after CEO Jack Dorsey announced he is stepping down from Twitter.
The update comes just a day after CEO Jack Dorsey announced he is stepping down from Twitter. Parag Agrawal, 45, was named the new CEO of the social media giant early on Monday,
The 45-year-old posted his resignation letter on Monday, in which he explained he had ‘worked hard to ensure this company can break away from its founding and founders’ before patting himself on the back by noting ‘there aren’t many founders that choose their company over ego.
‘I know we’ll prove this was the right move.’
Parag Agrawal, 45, was named the new CEO of the social media giant early on Monday, after serving as the company’s chief technology officer since 2017.
Dorsey was the CEO of the social media giant when it was first founded in 2006, and oversaw its startup. He returned to the top job in 2015.