As part of its ongoing effort to improve user privacy and security, Twitter jobs has announced the expansion of its private information policy to encompass the sharing of private media, such as images and videos, without the consent of the individuals portrayed in them.
"Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person's privacy and may lead to emotional or physical harm," Twitter shared on a blog post.
"The misuse of private media can affect everyone but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities. When we receive a report that a Tweet contains unauthorized private media, we will now take action in line with our range of enforcement options."
Twitter already prohibits the publication jobs of other people's private information, such as phone numbers, addresses, and IDs, as well as threatening to expose a person's private information and incentivizing others to do so.
The company also took the opportunity to outline the steps it would take if individuals informed that they had not permitted their private image or video to be shared. "We will remove it," the company said in a statement. The policy, it was noted, would not apply to media featuring "public figures or individuals when media and accompanying Tweet text are shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse."
In cases where account holders share media of individuals to assist someone in a crisis situation, the company will "try" to assess the context in which the content is shared. "In such cases," Twitter said, "we may allow the images or videos to remain on the service."
"For instance, we would take into consideration whether the image is publicly available and is being covered by mainstream/traditional media (newspapers, TV channels, online news sites), or if a particular image and the accompanying tweet text adds value to the public discourse, is being shared in the public interest, or is relevant to the community."
The policy's expansion comes a day after Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey announced his resignation in a letter to employees, informing them that CTO Parag Agrawal would take over the position.
Twitter has been introducing a slew of new features to reduce harmful content on its platform. In September, it launched a feature called Safety Mode, which temporarily blocks certain accounts for seven days if they are found insulting users or repeatedly sending hateful remarks. Before that, Twitter said it was conducting a test that would allow users in the United States, South Korea, and Australia to report misleading tweets.
