Twitter has announced an update to its so-called “private information policy.” It prohibited the sharing of personal information, such as addresses, telephone numbers, identity documents, etc. from other persons. Now, the social network will not allow sharing “private media” of other people, such as images or videos, without consent . This is the first major change following the arrival of Parag Agrawal as CEO of the company, after Jack Dorsey left office on November 29.
The social network has highlighted in a blog post that “sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person's privacy and can cause emotional or physical harm” to all users. But especially to “women, activists, dissidents and members of minority communities.” The company, therefore, will eliminate those images or videos that have been published without consent if the person who appears in the content or an authorized representative requests it.
Twitter mentions that the policy does not apply to “media featuring public figures or individuals” . That is, photographs of celebrities, politicians, etc. As long as, yes, the image or video and the text of the publication is of “public interest” or “adds value to public discourse.” Those publications that only serve to “harass, intimidate or use fear to silence them” will also be eliminated.
Twitter will not apply this new policy to images that may serve to help those people
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash On the other hand, the social network takes into account those images or videos that are published with the aim of helping those people . These could, for example, be photographs of a missing person or victims of a violent event. In this case, Twitter will try to “assess the context” and will keep the images if they appear, for example, in official channels and media. Also if the company itself considers them “relevant to the community”.
Twitter maintains its “non-consensual nudity policy”, which prohibits the publication of those photographs and videos with intimate or explicit content without consent. This rule, in addition, applies both to users and to those considered characters of public interest.
It is not surprising that the update of the “private information policy” is Twitter's first change after the rise of Parag Agrawal as the company's chief executive officer. Agrawal, in fact, has always shown a significant interest in user privacy and was involved in some of the most important security changes of Twitter, such as new account protection features in the platform.
