The company made the announcement extending an existing ban on private information to include media
The rule could potentially cover all “private individual media without the permission of the person(s) depicted
Private individuals can now request that images or videos featuring them be removed from Twitter. The company made the announcement extending an existing ban on private information to include media. It is intended to prevent harassment and invasions of privacy, with exceptions for posts “shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse.”
“Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm,” reads a Twitter Safety blog post announcing the change. “The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.” Twitter will evaluate complaints by the subject of a picture or video — or someone representing them — according to its larger private information policy.
The rule could potentially cover all “private individual media without the permission of the person(s) depicted,” but the blog post describes several scenarios in which Twitter would not remove that media. As implied, it does not apply to public figures, which typically include politicians, celebrities, and other well-known individuals. Twitter will also take other context into consideration, as well as existing rules like a ban on nonconsensual sexual imagery.
“We recognize that there are instances where account holders may share images or videos of private individuals in an effort to help someone involved in a crisis situation, such as in the aftermath of a violent event, or as part of a newsworthy event due to public interest value, and this might outweigh the safety risks to a person,” the post says. It may also leave media online if it’s being covered by traditional news outlets. And it will consider “if a particular image and the accompanying tweet text adds value to the public discourse, is being shared in public interest, or is relevant to the community.”
The goal is to remove images or videos that are fueling online harassment campaigns, but its implementation will most likely depend on moderators judging the nuance of a particular situation. For example, it’s unclear how Twitter would have ruled on a 2020 Twitter video depicting a white woman calling police on a Black man — an incident that was widely reported in mainstream outlets but only after a viral Twitter video and featured two private figures but echoed a larger existing conversation about racism and policing.
This change comes just one day after Twitter’s longtime CEO, Jack Dorsey, was replaced by former CTO Parag Agrawal.
