Online abuse among social media users has become dangerously common, even being considered the norm among young users.
However, Twitter is putting its foot down when it comes to online abuse with an updated policy that may improve how social media harassment is handled.
The social network announced on Tuesday that it would create a violent threats policy that would prohibit users from posting “direct, specific threats of violence against others,” according to the NY Daily News.
“Our previous policy was unduly narrow and limited our ability to act on certain kinds of threatening behavior,” Shreyas Doshi, director of product management, stated in the company’s blog.
“The updated language better describes the range of prohibited content and our intention to act when users step over the line into abuse.”
The CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo, had reportedly previously admitted that the social media website “sucks” when it comes to dealing with online abuse.
Users who are suspected of abusive behavior will also be put on temporary lock for a pre-determined amount of time until the user meets the criteria that Twitter has set for unlocking the account, according to the U.K. publication Belfast Telegraph.
“This option gives us leverage in a variety of contexts, particularly where multiple users begin harassing a particular person or group of people,” explained Doshi.
“We’ll be monitoring how these changes discourage abuse and how they help ensure the overall health of a platform that encourage everyone’s participation. And as the ultimate goal is to ensure that Twitter is a safe place for the widest possible range of perspectives, we will continue to evaluate and update our approach in this critical area.”
