Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 18-10-2017

Twitter is vowing to crack down further on hate speech and sexual harassment, days after CEO Jack Dorsey said in a tweetstorm that the company is not doing enough to protect its users.

The social media site has spent the last two years trying to clamp down on hate and abuse on its generally free-wheeling service.

Dorsey echoed concerns of many users and critics who say Twitter it hasn’t done enough to curb the abuse. But others worry that it’s muzzling free speech in the process.

In an email Twitter shared with The Associated Press, the company’s head of safety policy outlined the proposed new guidelines that tighten existing rules and impose some new ones. They aim to close loopholes that allowed people to glorify violence, for example.

WHAT’S CHANGING?

Some of the changes are aimed at protecting women who unknowingly or unwillingly had nude pictures of themselves distributed online or were subject to unwanted sexual advances. They would also try to shield groups subject to hateful imagery, symbols and threats of violence.

Twitter says it would also develop a system allowing bystanders on Twitter to report unwanted exchanges of sexually charged content, whereas in the past it relied on one of the parties involved in the conversation to come forward before taking action. Twitter already allows bystanders to report other violations on behalf of someone else.

The San Francisco-based company also said it would take new action on hate symbols and imagery and “take enforcement action against organizations that use/have historically used violence as a means to advance their cause,” though it said more details were to come.

It didn’t say what the hate symbols might be and enforcing this could prove difficult.

While some hate symbols, like the swastika, are widely recognized, groups have also adopted lesser-known, seemingly innocuous symbols to show hate.

Twitter also faces scrutiny from lawmakers investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Last week, Twitter gave Senate investigators the profile names of 201 accounts it had determined were linked to an effort by Moscow to sow discord and divisiveness during and after the campaign.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference, previously called Twitter’s cooperation as “frankly inadequate.”

Twitter: @FaizelPatel143