Twitter updates policy on adult material, graphic violence and abusive behaviour

TWITTER has published a new set of rules after it was criticised for the way it judges whether to suspend “offending” accounts.

The site came under fire for allowing Donald Trump to publish tweets that would typically be regarded as violating its policies, including a suggestion that North Korea “won’t be around much longer”.

This afternoon founder Jack Dorsey published what he described as a “clearer version of the Twitter Rules to clarify our policies and how we enforce them”.

They were published during what must have been a cringe-worthy day in the Twitter office after a rogue employee de-activated Donald Trump’s account for 11 minutes.

Abusive behaviour,  spam, self-harm, graphic violence and adult content are the main issues the company said it was targeting.

It said that abusive behaviour, which includes threats, would be allowed if the tweet is “newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest”.

Any tweets that encourage or promote self-harm will be removed – particularly suicide games.

The Blue Whale suicide game garnered attention last year as the urban legend took over social media.

Teens were sharing pictures of a blue whale, which was linked to an alleged copy-cat suicide pact.

Full or partial nudity (including close-ups of genitals, buttocks, or breasts) is banned although it’s not hard to find all of the above by looking for popular cam girls.

Spam will be judged not by fake news, but by “behavioural signals” in an effort to clean up spam bots following allegations Russia trolls were using them to thwart the US election.

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A statement by Twitter security read: “We have worked on this clarified version of our rules for the past few months to ensure it takes into account the latest trends in online behaviour, considers different cultural and social contexts, and properly sets expectations around what’s allowed on Twitter.”

The social network will update its rules on violent groups, hateful imagery and abusive usernames later this month.

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