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WASHINGTON: Twitter Inc has announced that it has removed more than 3,000 accounts that were operating as foreign state-linked information operations.
The Twitter accounts that were removed were linked to operations attributed to six countries, including Mexico, China and Russia, Twitter said in a blog post.
Of the 3,465 accounts removed, 2,160 were linked to operations attributed to China. The company also said it will start the Twitter moderation research consortium in early 2022 to study platform governance issues.
Meanwhile, the company also blocked users from sharing private images of other people without their consent, in a tightening of the network´s policy just a day after it changed CEOs.
Under the new rules, people who are not public figures can ask Twitter to take down pictures or videos of them that they report were posted without permission.
Twitter said this policy does not apply to “public figures or individuals when media and accompanying tweet text are shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse.”
“We will always try to assess the context in which the content is shared and, in such cases, we may allow the images or videos to remain on the service,” the company added.
The right of internet users to appeal to platforms when images or data about them are posted by third parties, especially for malicious purposes, has been debated for years.
Twitter already prohibited the publication of private information such as a person´s phone number or address, but there are “growing concerns” about the use of content to “harass, intimidate and reveal the identities of individuals,” Twitter said.
The company noted a “disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.” High-profile examples of online harassment include the barrages of racist, sexist and homophobic abuse on Twitch, the world´s biggest video game streaming site.
