Twitter has shut down- oh wait, we mean Elon Musk has fired- hold on, still not it. Ah, Twitter has managed to do something that has nothing to do with either laying people off or closing offices abroad. Twitter has updated its Violent Speech policy with new wording that adds very little, nor does it seem to clarify what it was updated to specifically address. An ambiguous policy update? Wonderful.

For Us Twits

Regardless, it has been revised, so let’s try and take a look at the ‘specifics’, if there are any, or if we can pinpoint said specifics at all. First off, Twitter’s policy states that:

“We have a zero-tolerance policy towards violent speech in order to ensure the safety of our users and prevent the normalization of violent actions.”

That extends to violent threats, glorification of violence, and ‘wishes of harm’ – though all of these rules have been in place for quite some time already, so there’s no real change in Twitter’s approach, as such. However, this is different:

“You may not wish, hope, or express desire for harm. This includes (but is not limited to) hoping for others to die, suffer illnesses, tragic incidents, or experience other physically harmful consequences.”

For context, Twitter’s previous rules noted that:

“Making vague or indirect threats, or threatening actions that are unlikely to cause serious or lasting injury are not actionable under this policy.”

Okay, that’s somewhat of a change, with these types of comments now, at least theoretically, falling foul of Twitter’s rules. Then again, such threats did still come under Twitter’s other abusive behavior policies, depending on the severity, so not really a major update there. However, Twitter has added a new note about threats to buildings:

“You may not threaten to inflict physical harm on others, which includes (but is not limited to) threatening to kill, torture, sexually assault, or otherwise hurt someone. This also includes threatening to damage civilian homes and shelters, or infrastructure that is essential to daily, civic, or business activities.”

Apparently, making threats to blow up people’s houses is now banned, which would have been liable to penalties under its previous policy anyway, so you kind of get an idea why this update sounds a bit redundant.

The Wrap

The point here is that no one really knows why Twitter decided to make the change and what it’s specifically looking to stamp out. Regardless, it made some updates to its Violent Speech policy, which, you’d assume, must relate to some specific use cases or examples that they want to cut out. Phew, made it through that, somehow.

Sources

http://bit.ly/3Zit5t8