Twitter will is still in support of allowing freedom of speech but not “freedom of reach” for tweets that violate its rules. This update will restrict the visibility of tweets that violate Twitter rules, the company made this known in its policy update.
Twitter will initially apply the visibility filter to tweets found to violate hateful conduct rules before expanding it to other domains.
According to the social media company, Twitter users have the right to freely express their opinions and ideas without fear of censorship.
“We also believe it is our responsibility to keep users on our platform safe from content violating our rules. These beliefs are the foundation of freedom of speech, not freedom of reach — our enforcement philosophy which means, where appropriate, restricting the reach of tweets that violate our policies by making the content less discoverable,” Twitter said.
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The sample screenshot provided an example of tweet visibility restriction that may violate Twitter’s rule against hateful behavior.
“Restricting the reach of tweets, also known as visibility filtering, is one of our existing enforcement actions that allows us to move beyond the binary ‘leave up versus take down’ approach to content moderation. However, like other social platforms, we have not historically been transparent when we’ve taken this action,” it said.
Twitter also stated that it will not place ads next to content labeled under the new rule.
“Starting soon, we will add publicly visible labels to tweets identified as potentially violating our policies letting you know we’ve limited their visibility,” the microblogging platform said.
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According to Twitter, authors will be able to provide feedback on the label if they believe “we incorrectly limited their tweet’s visibility.”
“Currently, submitting feedback does not guarantee you will receive a response or that your tweet’s reach will be restored. We are working on allowing authors to appeal our decision,” it said.
However, it’s worth noting that the new policy does not remove tweets entirely from the platform. Users will still be able to view these tweets if they follow the account that posted them or if they directly navigate to the tweet’s URL.
Twitter’s policy update represents a step towards promoting a safer and more positive online environment for its users. By reducing the visibility of harmful content, Twitter is working to ensure that its platform remains a place where users can engage in productive and respectful conversations.
