Twitter may introduce tougher rules and penalties on online sexual harassment in the next few weeks, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing an internal email it accessed. Twitter’s head of safety policy listed several new rules in the letter sent to the Trust and Safety Council, which assists the social media platform.
The new penalties include immediate and permanent suspensions of accounts that post non-consensual nudity. The company will also expand the definition of non-consensual nudity to include “upskirt imagery, creep shots and hidden camera content”.
The website plans to allow people to report unwanted sexual advances even if they are not the victim themselves, as has the case been till now. It will also expand the definition of sensitive media to include hate symbols and imagery.
This comes in the backdrop of the #WomenBoycottTwitter trend last week, which prompted Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey to say it would roll out new rules to take a more aggressive stance against voices being silenced on its platform. The hashtag began to trend after several women decided to boycott Twitter on October 13 after the account of Hollywood actor Rose McGwan – one of the many who had accused film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault – was suspended.
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