Conservatives on Twitter worry a new policy put in place Tuesday will ban viral videos from the platform.
Twitter Safety released a statement regarding how they are expanding their private information policy to include media:
“There are growing concerns about the misuse of media and information that is not available elsewhere online as a tool to harass, intimidate, and reveal the identities of individuals. Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm. The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities. When we receive a report that a Tweet contains unauthorized private media, we will now take action in line with our range of enforcement options.”
Twitter Safety wrote: “Beginning today, we will not allow the sharing of private media, such as images or videos of private individuals without their consent. Publishing people’s private info is also prohibited under the policy, as is threatening or incentivizing others to do so.”
Independent reporters such as Tim Pool took issue with this policy:
“Twitter’s new rule banning media would mean that the videos from Kenosha involving kyle rittenhouse would be banned,” he wrote, adding, “journalism is largely banned on twitter basically.”
Emily Brooks who is a reporter at the Washington Examiner also expressed her opinion regarding the policy:
“No posting pics of someone who isn’t a public figure except when Twitter determines that it is acceptable in these instances, incl. “newsworthy event due to public interest value” or “is being covered by mainstream/traditional media.” With these gray areas, what could go wrong?”
Many on social media are also criticizing this policy, stating that most likely politicians and government agencies like the FBI won’t be held accountable to this rule since they have posted pictures of people without their consent.