Big Brother Is Here: Twitter Will Monitor Users Behavior "Off Platform"

In perhaps the most intrusive move of social media platforms" efforts signal as much virtue as possible and appease their potentially-regulating government overlords, Twitter has announced that it is cracking down on what it defines at hate-speech and not just by looking at its own site.

In what amounts to a major shift in Twitter policy, Mashable"s Kerry Flynn reports that the company announced on Friday that it will be monitoring user"s behavior "on and off the platform" and will suspend a user"s account if they affiliate with violent organizations, according to an update to Twitter"s Help Center on Friday.

Abusive Behavior

We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.

 

Context matters when evaluating for abusive behavior and determining appropriate enforcement actions. Factors we may take into consideration include, but are not limited to whether:

• the behavior is targeted at an individual or group of people;


• the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander;


• the behavior is newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest.

 

Violence: You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people. This includes, but is not limited to, threatening or promoting terrorism.

 

You also may not affiliate with organizations that - whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform - use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.

 

Abuse: You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.

 

Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.

 

Hateful imagery and display names: You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. You also may not use your username, display name, or profile bio to engage in abusive behavior, such as targeted harassment or expressing hate towards a person, group, or protected category.

Furthermore, Twitter says it will control the stream of information more broadly...

At times, we may prevent certain content from trending.

As Kerry Flynn notes, these changes comes amid aggressive moves by Twitter to curb abuse and harassment on the site after more than a decade of essentially letting the abusers operate freely.

Over the last week, Twitter has taken action against the accounts of white supremacists. Twitter permanently banned Tim "Treadstone" Gionet, a prominent alt-right troll more widely known as Baked Alaska, earlier this week. It also removed the verification badges of Jason Kessler, one of the organizers of the racist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and of alt-right activist Richard Spencer.

Twitter"s decision to monitor users off site sparked concern from free speech advocates such as Andrew Torba, founder of social network Gab.

"This is a scary precedent to set," he wrote in an email to Mashable.

 

"Rules like this will only force dissidents and those who are speaking truth to power to silence themselves or risk being silenced by Twitter."

Twitter"s new rules will not be enforced until December 18th...

We’ve updated our rules around abuse and hateful conduct as well as violence and physical harm. These changes will be enforced starting December 18. Read our updated rules here: https://t.co/NGVT3qGFvg

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) November 17, 2017

And of course, "if you"re doing nothing wrong, then why would this be an issue for you" will be instant reposte of those defending yet more intrusion within America"s surveillance state.

Twitter Sued By Families Of Terrorism Victims For "Providing Services To ISIS"

Lately Twitter just can"t seem to get anything right.

While Jack Dorsey"s social network has been frequently in the news for cracking down on outspoken members of the "alt-right", or those accused of harrassment such as Martin Shkreli most recently, it has also been accused of taking a soft hand on those who post real threats, such as terrorist who use the social network to coordinate attacks.

A 2014 article in The Atlantic titled "How ISIS Games Twitter" described how "extremists of all stripes are increasingly using social media to recruit, radicalize and raise funds."

Which is also why a lawsuit was filed against Twitter by families of three Americans killed during ISIS attacks in France and Belgium, claiming the social media platform played "a uniquely essential role in the development of ISIS" image, its success in recruiting members from around the world, and its ability to carry out attacks and intimidate its enemies."

In the lawsuit, which argues that Twitter violated the Anti-Terrorism Act, the vicitms families" also accuse Twitter of “refusing to actively identify ISIS Twitter accounts, and only reviewing accounts reported by other Twitter users" and further allege that "Twitter provides services to ISIS that, among other things, substantially assist and contribute to ISIS’s ability to carry out its terrorist activities."

They add that terrorists have "used Twitter to specifically threaten France and Belgium that they would be attacked for participating in a coalition of nations against” Islamic State.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York, seeks punitive damages for deaths of two victims of terrorist attacks “in an amount sufficient to deter Twitter and others from similar future wrongful conduct,” according to court filing.

However, as Business Insider notes, a similar lawsuit accusing Twitter of providing support to ISIS was dismissed by a California judge in August 2016. Twitter is currently facing another similar lawsuit by family members of victims killed in the June 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Twitter began cracking down on accounts related to ISIS in the summer of 2015, when it suspended 125,000 accounts in one fell swoop. In August 2016, the company said it had suspended a total of 350,000 accounts related to ISIS since mid-2015.

The plaintiffs, however, find Twitter"s efforts have not been enough and allege that the company has "continued to provide these resources and services to ISIS and its affiliates, refusing to actively identify ISIS Twitter accounts, and only reviewing accounts reported by other Twitter users." The suit argues that  "simply put, ISIS uses Twitter as a tool and a weapon of terrorism."

The full lawsuit is below: