After the recent announcement of changing their CEO from founder Jack Dorsey to their previous CTO Parag Agrawal, Twitter has made another huge announcement about changes in their rules and guidelines giving importance to consent.
In their attempt to make Twitter a toxicity-free place and decrease the number of trollers on the platform, the company has launched a new set of rules on Tuesday aiming to block users from sharing private images, videos, and information of individuals without their consent.
After the rollout of new rules, people who do not have a public figure account can ask the micro-blogging website to take down pictures or videos of them which they reported being posted without their consent.
Also, Twitter clearly mentioned that their policy will not apply to “public figures or individuals when media and accompanying tweet text are shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse,” this includes politicians, celebrities, or other well-known people.
Even prior to this update, Twitter’s policies were robust about sharing private information without consent. Twitter used to ban users from sharing a person’s home address, private phone numbers or emails, credit card numbers, or medical information.
Announcing the new rules, the social media giant said, “Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm.”
“The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.”
However, Twitter also considered the possibility of sharing private information in case of emergency or crisis. “We recognise that there are instances where account holders may share images or videos of private individuals in an effort to help someone involved in a crisis situation, such as in the aftermath of a violent event, or as part of a newsworthy event due to public interest value, and this might outweigh the safety risks to a person.”
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