Twitter has formally introduced a new “zero tolerance” policy on violent speech.
The new policy, which was disclosed in a tweet on Wednesday, appears to build on some ideas from the organization’s previous policy on violent threats while simultaneously eliminating others.
In a tweet sent on Wednesday, the business declared that its new “violent speech” policy forbade the use of its platform to make violent threats that wish to damage, glorify violence, or instigate violence.
The new policy states that users “may not wish, hope, or express desire for harm.” The previous policy prohibited users from making statements that “express a wish or hope that someone experiences physical harm, make vague or indirect threats, or threaten actions that are unlikely to cause serious or lasting injury.”
According to Twitter Safety, “We have a zero-tolerance policy for violent speech, and in most situations, we will suspend any account that violates this rule.”
“For less serious offenses, we might ask you to remove the content before granting you access to your account once more.”
“If you think a tweet is inappropriate, kindly let us know as soon as possible.” As always, you can submit an appeal by following the steps below if you believe we made a mistake.
We’ve made a few changes to our policies around violent content and similar language. Today, we’ve officially launched our Violent Speech policy, which prohibits violent threats, wishes of harm, glorification of violence, and incitement of violence. ?
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 28, 2023
The new guideline leaves open the question of what constitutes extremely violent speech and what does not.
Although the firm stated that it will permanently ban a user’s account for breaking the new rules and temporarily suspend a user for “less severe circumstances,” it does not distinguish between a mild and severe case.
The company added that it permits displays of violence when there is no overtly abusive or violent situation present, such as when friends are speaking passionately to one another “or when discussing video games and sporting events.”
According to Twitter, some figures of speech, satire, and artistic expression are acceptable when they communicate a viewpoint “rather than to incite actionable violence or injury.”
The newest change to Twitter’s safety guidelines under Elon Musk, who has referred to himself as a “free-speech absolutist,” is the new policy.
It will be interesting to see how Twitter moderates the site in light of the new rule modification.
Following massive layoffs at the company, which saw over half of its workforce reduced, including entire human rights and machine learning ethics teams, as well as many outsourced contract workers helping to keep the platform secure, Twitter’s head of trust and safety said the company would bank more on automation to moderate content on the platform.
Following the layoffs, Twitter announced it would “aggressively” block abusive hashtags and search results in areas like child exploitation by using automation more and more.