Spotlights

Far-right supporters took advantage of Twitter's current legislation to harass critics.

Twitter confessed to making mistakes during the implementation of the new policy.

Twitter's enforcement staff made a number of mistakes, according to the company.

Twitter's new photo authorization policy was intended to fight online abuse, but campaigners and researchers in the United States warned Friday that it has been used by far-right supporters to shield themselves from scrutiny and harass opponents.

Even Twitter recognized that false reports and its own problems hampered the deployment of the regulations, which state that anybody can ask Twitter to remove photographs of themselves posted without their consent.

It was exactly the kind of problem that anti-racism activists feared would follow the policy's announcement this week.

Anti-extremism researcher Kristofer Goldsmith swiftly confirmed their fears, tweeted a photograph of a far-right call-to-action spreading on Telegram: 'Things are suddenly surprisingly working in our favor thanks to Twitter's revised privacy policy.'

'Anyone with a Twitter account should report doing postings from the following accounts,' the letter stated, listing dozens of Twitter handles.

Gwen Snyder, a Philadelphia organizer, and researcher said her Twitter account was restricted this week after she reported a series of 2019 images she claimed showed a local political candidate at a Proud Boys-organized march. 

Rather than filing a Twitter appeal, she chose to delete the photographs and inform others of the situation.

'Twitter's decision to remove (my) work from their platform is extremely dangerous, as it will empower and assist Nazis,' she told AFP.

'Sharing personal media, such as photographs or videos, can potentially breach a person's privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm,' Twitter said in unveiling the privacy policy on Tuesday.

However, 'public figures or persons when media and accompanying Tweets are posted in the public interest or contribute value to public dialogue' are exempt from the guidelines.

'We had become aware of a considerable volume of organized and harmful complaints, and regrettably, our investigative staff made some errors,' Twitter wrote on Friday.

Finally 'We've fixed the issues and are conducting an internal assessment to ensure that this policy is implemented as intended,' the company noted.