No Place for Bullies: Twitter Issues New Hate Speech Guidelines

Twitter has been criticised for not doing enough to tackle online abuse, and in February, then-chief executive Dick Costolo admitted the company "sucks" at dealing with trolling.

In a blog post, the social media company explained what will prompt it to delete accounts, banning what it calls "abusive behaviour and hateful conduct."

This includes "making violent threats or carrying out "targeted abuse or harassment; running several similar accounts to work around one of them being suspended; impersonating other users for deceptive purposes."

​JM Berger, co-author of a Brookings Institute census of Isis Twitter use in March — which found that the militant group had operated at least 46,000 accounts from September to December of last year — said the change would lead to more aggressive reporting of abuse by users who flag accounts that break the rules.

​While the new policy doesn't substantively change what's allowed, it may help Twitter answer criticism from politicians and others who say militant extremists are using the service and other social networks to recruit members and promote their violent agendas.

​Multiple Accounts

Pressure is growing on social media firms to tackle issues such as online extremism and cyberbullying, which are said to affect millions of young people every year. The Times reported last week that the Home Secretary Theresa May had suggested that new surveillance powers — unveiled under the Investigatory Powers Bill — could be used to help police to unmask anonymous cyberbullies.

The new policy also explicitly bans "creating multiple accounts with overlapping uses" aimed at evading suspension of a single account. Critics say Twitter has previously made it too easy for extremists to create new accounts as soon as older ones are shut down.

Twitter has already clamped down on Internet trolls by introducing a series of measures over the past year, its European head Bruce Daisley has said.

​Speaking to The Independent ahead of Twitter's 10th birthday, Mr Daisley said more effort had been put into user safety than any other issue.

A number of high-profile users had quit Twitter, citing online abuse. The daughter of actor Robin Williams closed her account saying she had been abused by other users after his death.

And Sara Payne, whose daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered in 2000, said she was leaving the social media network after years of online harassment.

The implementation of phone verification — where the user is sent a numeric code they have to enter before accessing the site — also allows Twitter to check if a member has other accounts which have been suspended as a result of abuse, Mr Daisley said.

Users have also been given new tools to block trolls and they have been encouraged to share their lists of blocked accounts, the newspaper reported.

However, the real test will be how Twitter enforces the rules.

Meanwhile, Daesh ringleader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi's post-Christmas call to action in a rare video backfired when Muslims tweeted that they'd rather binge-watch a TV show than become a terrorist.

His rambling, 24-minute message was posted last week, but dozens of tweets directed at Al-Baghdadi's Twitter account rattled off a list of better things to do than "join the fight" with Daesh.