Twitter to enforce new rules on abuse, hateful conduct and violence and physical harm

  • Twitter

Twitter will start to enforce new rules on Monday as the micro-blogging site aims to curb hateful content.

The guidelines were revealed in November and cover abuse, hateful conduct as well as violence and physical harm.

What are included in the new rules?

  • A new rule regarding violence will also take into account activity offline.

  • It will forbid users from affiliating with organisations that promote violence against civilians either either on or off Twitter.

  • The use of "hateful images or symbols" in user profiles or biographies is prohibited.

  • Breach of any of the new rules can lead to permanent account suspension.

The social site has been overhauling many of its policies in recent weeks following repeated criticism over how it handles abusive content.

What issues have caused controversy?

Last month the site paused its verification process, as well as removing verified 'blue tick' badges from right wing figures, including former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson.

This came after it was criticised for verifying the account of Jason Kessler, a prominent alt-right figure in the US who organised a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Twitter said the verified badge was never meant as a sign of endorsement, and the firm's boss Jack Dorsey described the process as "broken".

The company was also recently accused of failing to act on anti-Muslim videos retweeted by US president Donald Trump because the incident made global headlines.

The site was forced to clarify its position after an it initially appeared to suggest the videos, retweeted by Mr Trump from the account of Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen, were not removed because they stoked debate.

Mr Dorsey said the site had "mistakenly pointed to the wrong reason" the videos remained online, with the company adding its current media policy had not been violated, but would "continue to re-evaluate and examine our policies as the world around us evolves".