Twitter To Block Outbound Links To “Hateful Content”

Engadget reports:

Twitter is closing a loophole in its rules to make it harder for users to spread hate speech and violent content. The company is updating its policies to ban links to content that promotes violence and hateful conduct.

Twitter already had rules in place barring hateful conduct and violence in tweets, but the policy didn’t extend to linked content. So users could effectively skirt Twitter’s policies by linking to content that would otherwise break the company’s rules if it was posted directly.

From a statement issued by Twitter today:



At times, Twitter will take action to limit or prevent the spread of URL links to content outside Twitter. This is done by displaying a warning notice when the link is clicked, or by blocking the link so that it can’t be Tweeted at all.

We may take action to limit the spread of the following categories of links: Malicious links that could steal personal information or harm electronic devices, links associated with known platform manipulation campaigns, URL shorteners that are primarily used to mislead or deceive people about the website’s content.

Certain categories of content that, if posted directly on Twitter, would violate our rules. This includes links to websites that feature: terrorism and violent extremism, content created by terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups, and recruitment sites for a terrorist organization or violent extremist group.

We may also take action to limit links to content that promotes violence against, threatens, or harasses other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.