Twitter creates its
rules to keep people safe on Twitter, and they continuously evolve to reflect
the realities of the world it operates within.
Its primary focus is on
addressing the risks of offline harm, and research shows that dehumanizing
language increases that risk. Late last year, Twitter took a new approach by
seeking feedback from the Arabic, English, Spanish and Japanese
public on an update to its hateful conduct policy around dehumanization.
As a result, after
months of conversations and the feedback from the public, external experts and
its own teams, Twitter is expanding its rules against hateful conduct
to include language that
dehumanizes others on the basis of religion.
Starting today, Twitter
will require Tweets like these to be removed from the platform when they’re
reported:
If reported, Tweets that
break this rule sent before today will need to be deleted, but will not
directly result in any account suspensions because they were Tweeted before the
rule was set.
Why start with religious
groups?
Last year, Twitter asked
for feedback to ensure it considered a wide range of perspectives and to hear
directly from the different communities and cultures who use Twitter around the
globe. All Arabic speakers were invited to submit their responses via Twitter
MENA’s Arabic blog. The same applied to English, Spanish and Japanese speakers.
In two weeks, Twitter received more than 8,000 responses from people located in more than 30 countries.
Some of the most
consistent feedback it received included:
- Clearer
language - Across languages, people believed the proposed change could be improved by providing more details,
examples of violations, and explanations for when and how context is
considered. Twitter incorporated this feedback when refining this rule,
and also made sure that it provided additional detail and clarity
across all its rules.
- Narrow
down what’s considered - Respondents
said that “identifiable groups” was too broad, and they should be allowed
to engage with political groups, hate groups, and other non-marginalized
groups with this type of language. Many people wanted to “call out hate
groups in any way, any time, without fear.” In other instances, people
wanted to be able to refer to fans, friends and followers in endearing
terms, such as “kittens” and “monsters.”
- Consistent
enforcement - Many people raised concerns
about Twitter’s ability to enforce its rules fairly and consistently, so
Twitter developed a longer, more in-depth training process with its teams
to make sure they were better informed when reviewing reports. For this
update it was especially important to spend time reviewing examples
of what could potentially go against this rule, due to the shift outlined
earlier.
Through this feedback,
and Twitter’s discussions with outside experts, it also confirmed that there
are additional factors it needs to better understand and be able to address
before it expanded this rule to address language directed at other protected
groups, including:
- How
does it protect conversations people have within marginalized groups,
including those using reclaimed terminology?
- How does it ensure that its range of enforcement actions
take context fully into account, reflect the severity of violations, and
are necessary and proportionate?
- How can – or should – Twitter factor in considerations
as to whether a given protected group has been historically marginalized
and/or is currently being targeted into its evaluation of severity of
harm?
