Twitter announces new default profile picture

Social networking platform Twitter has announced a radical change in its default profile picture, in an attempt to encourage new users to "express themselves" and "show us who they are".

The default image that new users of the site will have is now an outline of a person of no specific gender.

The egg default profile image has been in use by the company since 2010, in a reference to the site's logo - a bird in flight.

In a blog post, the design team said: "The new default image feels more like an empty state or placeholder, and we hope it encourages people to upload images that express themselves."

The company also acknowledged the problem of harassing accounts never changing profile pictures, saying that the association between "egg accounts" and harassment had a negative impact on genuine new users.

The blog said: "We’ve noticed patterns of behaviour with accounts that are created only to harass others – often they don’t take the time to personalise their accounts.

"This has created an association between the default egg profile photo and negative behaviour, which isn’t fair to people who are still new to Twitter and haven’t yet personalised their profile photo."