Twitter tightens rules against hate comments
The microblogging service Twitter is taking stronger action against content that targets religious communities. Going forward, tweets that compare religious groups to vermin or contagious diseases—or that severely insult them in other ways—will be deleted.
This was announced by Twitter's security department in a blog post on Tuesday. The main focus is on combating the risks to which people are exposed offline in the real world. "Research has shown that dehumanizing language increases this risk."
Twitter therefore wants to prevent language that "dehumanizes" other people because of their religious affiliation. According to its own statement, Twitter wants to communicate in clearer language in future and list examples of rule violations. A more thorough training process has also been developed.
Twitter has been taking tougher action against aggressive users for over a year now. In May 2018, the network announced that it would use broader behavioral analysis instead of just chasing after individual posts. However, the approach is controversial.
Affected troublemakers accuse Twitter of censorship. At the same time, Twitter is facing accusations that it is not doing enough to stop hate comments. (SDA)
