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Twitter to ban sharing of personal photos and videos

Twitter is to ban the sharing of personal media, including photos and videos, without the consent of the person concerned.

Twitter to ban sharing of personal photos and videos

This widens the platform's privacy policy, which already prohibits sharing of other people's private information such as phone numbers and addresses.

A group blog post stated: "When we are notified by individuals depicted, or by an authorised representative, that they did not consent to having their private image or video shared, we will remove it."

The company, however, recognises “that there are instances where account holders may share images or videos of private individuals in an effort to help someone involved in a crisis situation, such as in the aftermath of a violent event, or as part of a newsworthy event due to public interest value, and this might outweigh the safety risks to a person.”

They say that they “will always try to assess the context in which the content is shared” and in certain cases “allow the images or videos to remain on the service.” They will “take into consideration whether the image is publicly available and/or is being covered by mainstream/traditional media (newspapers, TV channels, online news sites), or if a particular image and the accompanying tweet text adds value to the public discourse, is being shared in public interest, or is relevant to the community.

“Feeling safe on Twitter is different for everyone, and our teams are constantly working to understand and address these needs,” they say. “We know our work will never be done, and we will continue to invest in making our product and policies more robust and transparent to continue to earn the trust of the people using our service.”

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