Twitter Combats Racists & Neo-Nazis With a Policy Deadline

The social media giant took on white supremacists and neo-nazis by cracking down on their policy against racist users. Twitter announced on Friday that they would closely monitor the activities of users "on and off" the platform and suspend accounts of those who associate with violent hate groups.

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However, the policy enforcement won't be effective immediately. Users were given a December 18 deadline, due to regulations in the European Union that require a 30-day advance notification for companies to enforce new policies.

An update to the Twitter help center reads:

 

You also may not affiliate with organizations that — whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform — use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.

 

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Twitter announced on Wednesday that they were about to conduct a verified account sweep, and said they would remove verification from those who don't adhere to the social media platform's updated policies.

Twitter support posted a series of tweets outlining their bold objective:

Verification has long been perceived as an endorsement. Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance. We recognize that we have created this confusion and need to resolve it. This perception became worse when we opened up verification for public submissions and verified people who we in no way endorse.

 

The recent policy updates came after Twitter received a considerable amount of pushback for awarding the blue verification badge to Jason Kessler, the organizer of the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

White nationalist figures Richard Spencer and Tommy Robinson had their blue check marks revoked; as well as conservative activist Laura Loomer, who was banned from ride-share services Uber and Lyft, for her vitriolic and anti-Muslim tweets in the wake of the pickup truck that killed eight people in the New York City attack.

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A Twitter spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement, "The updates to the rules today will be enforced starting December 18. We'll also have more details on these policies to share that day.

The strict policy will fix the loophole often attacked by critics, that white supremacists and members of hate groups still could rally their followers to promote their agenda of hate through less aggressive tweets.

Some are concerned about the company's monitoring conservative speech.

 

One user was opposed to Twitter's updated policy change, but not for what you'd expect.

 

Many people outwardly declared a ban on all Nazis.

 

When a ban is simply not enough, there is this option:

 

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H/T - mashable, independent, businessinsider, twitter