Twitter To Restrict Sharing Of Private Images And Videos
December 1, 2021Twitter is taking a step forward to protect user privacy. In a recent blogpost the social media giant said that it is updating existing its private information policy and expanding its scope to include private media. Currently, users are not allowed to publish other people’s private information including phone numbers, addresses, IDs and other forms of identification.
But the latest update, includes misuse of personal media such as images and videos. Unauthorised distribution can potentially violate a person’s privacy and to an extent cause emotional or physical harm. For this policy to take effect, Twitter will need to receive a first-person report or one from an authorised representative regarding a Tweet’s unauthorised usage of private media.
However, this is not applicable to media featuring public figures or individuals shared for public interest. If there’s malicious intent to it, such as to harass, imitate or silence victims, Twitter will step in to remove the content, which is in line with its abusive behaviour policy.
This is what Twitter considers a “violation” of this policy?
The following types of private information or media can’t be shared without the permission of the person who it belongs to:
- home address or physical location information, including street addresses, GPS coordinates or other identifying information related to locations that are considered private.
- identity documents, including government-issued IDs and social security or other national identity numbers – note: we may make limited exceptions in regions where this information is not considered to be private.
- contact information, including non-public personal phone numbers or email addresses
- financial account information, including bank account and credit card details.
- other private information, including biometric data or medical records.
- media of private individuals without the permission of the person(s) depicted.
- sharing sign-in credentials for online banking services;
- asking for or offering a bounty or financial reward in exchange for posting someone’s private information;
- asking for a bounty or financial reward in exchange for not posting someone’s private information, sometimes referred to as blackmail
The following are also included:
threatening to publicly expose someone’s private information;
sharing information that would enable individuals to hack or gain access to someone’s private information without their consent,e.g.,
If you would like to read the full Twitter post, click here.
