The new Twitter rules regarding images and videos is used by the American far right to protect themselves and harass its opponents.
Le Monde with AFP
The measure did not have the expected effect. Designed to fight against online harassment, the new Twitter regulation regarding images and videos is used by the American far right to protect themselves and harass its opponents, according to activists and experts.
Twitter has decreed on Tuesday that users (excluding public figures) may request that photos or videos where they appear are removed from the social network if they had been published without their consent. However, the company admitted on Friday that the implementation of this measure had been difficult.
“We have been informed of a significant number of malicious and coordinated reporting, and unfortunately, our teams have made several mistakes,” said Twitter at the France-Press agency (AFP). “We rectified these errors and we proceed to an internal investigation to ensure that this regulation is used,” added the company.
A problem anticipated by activists
Many anti-cell activists had anticipated this type of problem as soon as the new policy is announced. Their fears were quickly confirmed when the Kristofer Goldsmith researcher quickly tweeted the screenshot of a message that the extreme right had circulated on Telegram: “Due to the new Twitter policy on privacy, so unexpected, things turn to our advantage “.
“Anyone with a Twitter account should report Doxxing’s publications [a practice of unveiling private information about someone] the following accounts”, specified the message, accompanied by a list of dozens of identifiers. .
Gwen Snyder, activist and researcher in Philadelphia, saw his account blocked this week, a consequence of a report related to a series of photos published in 2019 showing a local politician during a demonstration organized by the group of extreme right proud boys.
Rather than calling with Twitter, she preferred to delete the photos and speak publicly about what had happened. “The fact that Twitter eliminates [my] work of his platform is incredibly dangerous, and will promote and encourage fascists,” she deplored with AFP.
Difficult policy to put in work
To justify his new policy, Twitter stressed that “share personal content, such as images or videos,” could “violate a person’s privacy, and cause emotional or physical harm”. The company had specified that this rule did not apply to “public personalities” or when “the content accompanying tweets are shared in the general interest or bring value to the public debate”.
Nevertheless, the Account of Chad Loder, which militates in California, was blocked after reports related to images of an anti-vaccine gathering, and a confrontation in front of the home of a former journalist of Vice .
“twitter says that I have to delete my tweets with photos of people to a public event worthy of media coverage and has actually been followed by the media, or I will never recover my account, said Chad Loder, stating that it was the third reporting of his account in 48 hours. The massive reported by the extreme right is the last salvo on a continuous and concerted effort to erase the evidence of their crimes and their misdeeds. “