Twitter admits to suspending accounts by mistake under new policy

A day after Twitter users complained of their followers dropping significantly, the US social media giant admitted to erroneously suspending accounts. However, the microblogging site said that it has corrected the errors and launched an internal review. Earlier this week, The Washington Post reported that neo-Nazis and other right-wing activists were allegedly training and assisting their followers on ways to use Twitter's new "private information policy" in order to eliminate incriminating photos. Notably, the group deliberately targeted those photos and videos that were categorically published by "anti-extremism researchers" and "journalists". Reacting to one such report by The Washington Post, Twitter said that the actions were taken as per the new "private information policy". 

Action was taken after receiving multiple threats: Spokesperson

While speaking to The Washington Post, Twitter spokesman Trenton Kennedy said that the micro-blogging site "mistakenly" suspended a few Twitter accounts under its new policy. According to him, the action was taken after the system received multiple coordinated and malicious reports targeting anti-extremism researchers and journalists. Explaining the new policy, he said users can now request for the removal of any image or video that includes them and was uploaded "without their consent".

"Under our existing policy, publishing other people's private information, such as phone numbers, addresses, and IDs, is already not allowed on Twitter. This includes threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so," read the statement released by Twitter on its blog on November 30.

"While our existing policies and Twitter Rules cover explicit instances of abusive behaviour, this update will allow us to take action on media that is shared without any explicit abusive content, provided it’s posted without the consent of the person depicted," read the new policy of the micro-blogging site. 

Meanwhile, on Friday, Twitter's spokesperson admitted at least 12 accounts were suspended after receiving multiple threats. However, he clarified an internal review has also been launched to ensure the new policy was used "as intended", reported Sputnik. On Thursday, several Twitter users took to the platform to complain about the significant drop in their followers. Subsequently, the organisation clarified that the drop ranging from hundreds to thousands of users was due to a clean-up exercise i.e removing bots from the platform. 

(Image: PTI)