Rules of the tweetosphere deem nonconsensual nudes an unacceptable pox on its platform.
Twitter is fighting back against miscreants who post revenge porn. Image by Flickr user Pete Simon.
Two days after Reddit’s ban on revenge porn went into effect, Twitter finally hopped on the bandwagon in an addendum made to their “Twitter Rules,” prohibiting the posting of “intimate photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject’s consent.” Policy tweaks and new features added last month also tackled “doxxing,” a practice commonly employed by hackers where personal information (Social Security numbers, home addresses, financial information, etc.) is leaked online. And February saw Twitter announcing that they had tripled the size of staff dedicated to reports of online abuse, further evidence of their fairly recent efforts to seriously address issues of security and harassment on the platform.
Accounts to be found in violation of their amended terms of use may be suspended, investigated for abuse, removed entirely from Search, and/or immediately terminated.
The platform has come under fire for how they have dealt, or failed to deal, with trolls and online tormentors, with CEO Dick Costolo acknowledging their failings in this department and surveying users to gather data in trying to address the problems.
Though progress has been slow on Twitter’s part, at least it’s another step in the right direction.
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