Twitter announces ‘Violent Speech’ policy

SAN FRANCISCO: Micro-blogging platform Twitter on Wednesday announced that it has updated its rules on "violent content and similar language", and has now "officially launched" its "Violent Speech" policy.

The new policy prohibits violent threats, wishes of harm, glorification of violence and incitement of violence, the company tweeted from its @TwitterSafety account.

The company has a "zero tolerance policy" towards violent speech in order to ensure the safety of the users and prevent the normalisation of violent actions.

"We allow expressions of violent speech when there is no clear abusive or violent context," the company said in the policy's page.

It also allows "certain cases of figures of speech, satire, or artistic expression when the context is expressing a viewpoint rather than instigating actionable violence or harm".

The platform further mentioned that it will evaluate and understand the context behind the conversation before taking any action.

In most cases, Twitter will "immediately and permanently" suspend the account that violates this policy.

However, for less severe violations, it will temporarily lock users out of their account before they can tweet again, and if they continue to violate this policy after receiving a warning, their account will be permanently suspended.

"If you believe that your account was suspended in error, you can submit an appeal," the platform added.