Now we know how far Twitter is willing to go towards enforcing the new privacy policy that the new CEO, Parag Agrawal implemented days after he took the mantle.
According to a Washington Post report, the social media platform suspended quite a number of accounts after far-right extremists began abusing the platform’s new privacy policy.
After finding out what had happened, Twitter launched an internal review of the cases and has reinstated the suspended accounts again.
The new policy allows individuals to request tweets to be taken down if there are any media that they say were taken without consent, this has became the loophole abused by far-right extremists who wants trace of them being in the rallies to be removed.
Incidentally, the policy was put in place to quote “curb the misuse of media to harass, intimate, and reveal the identities of private individuals”, says Twitter.
READ MORE: Twitter Bans Sharing Of Photos Of Private Individuals Without Consent
Soon after the policy went live, accounts have been suspended for posting any kind of media against right-wing groups. It was found that they have coordinated off Twitter to target tweets that keep track or expose their activities.
The Post further pointed out that some of them learnt that their accounts have been suspended due to violations pertaining the “posting media of an individual from a country with a recognized right to privacy law” rule on the platform.
We became aware of a significant amount of coordinated and malicious reports, and unfortunately, our enforcement teams made several errors.
We’ve corrected those errors and are undergoing an internal review to make certain that this policy is used as intended — to curb the misuse of media to harass or intimidate private individuals
Twitter spokesperson to The Verge.
The sheer speed, scale and enthusiasm that these right-wing groups have weaponised this policy coupled with the enforcement error, it is safe to say that this policy is backfiring, royally.
Furthering the sentiment carried by users, we still do not know where the line in the sand is regarding this particular policy, whether the company will make it clear what types of photos can or cant be reported also remains muddy.
