Twitter has started to enforce new rules aimed at filtering out "hateful" and "abusive" content on the social network, including messages which promote or glorify violence.
The platform has long faced criticism over how it deals with hate groups and content, which led it to remove verification badges from prominent US white nationalists last month.
"Specific threats of violence or wishing for serious physical harm, death, or disease to an individual or group of people is in violation of our policies," the new rules state.
Also banned, will be any content that "glorifies violence or the perpetrators of a violent act" as well as "hateful imagery" including logos or symbols associated with "hostility and malice" toward specific groups.
Australian company Project Rockit partnered with Twitter to develop the new rules.
Founder Rosie Thomas was confident the change "sends a positive and powerful" message to young people that this kind of behaviour in all of its forms just isn't tolerated.
"I think the really important thing here as well is that it doesn't matter whether you're hiding behind a screen, you can be held accountable," she told SBS news.
"These are huge human problems, these aren't technological problems and I think that's why it's so important that the (Twiter) Trust and Safety Council exists because this is social media platform that's putting their hand out and saying 'hey we do need help' and 'we do value the expertise of people who are working on safety every single day'."
Changes 'long overdue' but more information needed: expert
Twitter's move has been heralded as "long overdue" by Sydney University media and communications expert Dr Fiona Martin.
She said there was a need for the platform to disclose who would actually be doing the moderating.
"What we don’t know is who is doing the moderation, so where are these people based, what’s their cultural background, their values and how they’re interpreting the platform’s rules?" she said.
"The second thing we really need to know more about is the scope and the scale of the complaints. So at the moment, we don’t know how many complaints are posted, we don’t know how they're resolved, we really don’t have a sense to whether people are satisfied with the resolution to their complaints."
"They’re looking at better content moderation of hate speech, violent threats, terrorist recruitment, image-based abuse, so non-consensual postal of intimate images online and 'doxing', or posting of a person’s personal information, like addresses, phone numbers and credit cards."
The platform says it will also suspend "accounts that affiliate with organisations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes."
However, Twitter said it would not cut off accounts for military or government entities and would consider exceptions "for groups that are currently engaging in (or have engaged in) peaceful resolution."
-With AFP
