The New Twitter Rules

[George K]

Sure, we'll play by the new rules: have a big cup of "I told you!"

witter has been caught flat-footed by what it described in a statement as "a significant amount of coordinated and malicious" activity that led to "several errors" in Twitter's enforcement.

"We've corrected those errors and are undergoing an internal review to make certain that this policy is used as intended — to curb the misuse of media to harass or intimidate private individuals," Twitter said.

Unveiled on Tuesday, Twitter's new policy prohibits the sharing of images of private individuals without those people's consent. The rule was created, Twitter initially said, in a bid to prevent its platform from being abused to harass and intimidate people, particularly women, activists and minorities.

But right-wing groups and anti-mask activists have quickly determined that the new Twitter policy offers an opportunity to strike back at those who might draw attention to their real-world identities. And in a matter of days, they established a coordinated campaign to flood Twitter with complaints that left-wing activists, Jan. 6 investigators and journalists covering rallies have published their faces without consent in violation of the new rule.

Twitter says it will remove images of people posted without consent
In January, Samuel Braslow was covering an anti-mask protest at a Los Angeles mall for the Beverly Hills Courier, the 56-year-old local newspaper where he is a staff reporter. During the public event, Braslow tweeted a video of a standoff between anti-maskers and a mall official — a common practice in the age of digital reporting.

Braslow couldn't have known that, this week, someone would file a report about that same photojournalism and cause Twitter to lock down his account. The complaint led to Braslow being unable to tweet until he either successfully appealed the report or deleted the old tweets. He was stuck.

What happened to Braslow is increasingly playing out across the wider Twitterverse as the social media platform's new policy has become a battleground.

Twitter declined to describe to CNN how reports were being reviewed and which ones may be being handled by humans rather than artificial intelligence.

David Kaye, a former United Nations special rapporteur on free expression, said Twitter should revert the policy and go back to the drawing board.

"From all appearances, Twitter's new 'privacy policy' is a failure, well-intentioned (perhaps) but abused & played," he tweeted. "They should be honest -- admit it's not ready for prime time."
Twitter's new policy pointedly doesn't take sides, saying that "everyone" can be harmed by the non-consensual sharing of images that may lead to emotional or physical harm.

The policy generally won't apply, Twitter said, to images of people at public events, like "large scale protests" or sporting events. Twitter added that the company will grant exceptions and allow images of people who may be "part of a newsworthy event due to public interest value."

"Generally won't apply..." my ass.