One Day After New CEO Takes Over Twitter, Company Announces 'Scary' New Policy

Leah Barkoukis | November 30, 2021 10:15 AM

After Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down on Monday, critics cautioned that his successor—CTO Parag Agrawal—won’t be any better. In fact, some said censorship at the company will get worse. Less than a day later, that looks to be the case.

In a blog post published Tuesday titled, “Expanding Our Private Information Policy to Include Media,” Twitter said it will take enforcement action against “personal media” that is shared without consent.

"There are growing concerns about the misuse of media and information that is not available elsewhere online as a tool to harass, intimidate, and reveal the identities of individuals," the company said. "Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm. 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.

When we are notified by individuals depicted, or by an authorized representative, that they did not consent to having their private image or video shared, we will remove it. This policy is not applicable 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.
However, if the purpose of the dissemination of private images of public figures or individuals who are part of public conversations is to harass, intimidate, or use fear to silence them, we may remove the content in line with our policy against abusive behavior. (Twitter)