Last Updated on 17/05/2021 by Khushi
In order to keep a safe environment for users, Twitter has the authority to temporarily disable one’s tweets and the account if they are not in accordance with their policies.
The ‘requiring media or profile edits’ policy reads, “If an account’s profile or media content isn’t compliant with our policies, we may make it temporarily unavailable and need that the violator edit the media or information in their profile to comply with our rules. We also explain which policy their profile or media content has violated.” In other words, if the profile picture, header image, or other image that was posted doesn’t meet Twitter’s standards, Twitter can blacklist the entire account until it has been rectified.
Over the years, it has been observed many examples of Twitter preferring to put warning labels next to insulting and harmful content, warning labels that also allow users to quickly read such messages. Twitter believes these policies are intended to “better inform folks on the actions taken by Twitter.” Further information was not provided by the firm. The most realistic reason I can come up with is that this is an outdated, antiquated scheme that should have been phased out long ago.
Last week, a prominent journalist with a Palestinian-American origin was live-tweeting from demonstrations near Jerusalem was abruptly and mysteriously silenced on Twitter, with every single tweet replaced by the post “@MariamBarghouti’s account is temporarily unavailable because it violates the Twitter Media Policy.” After which the tech giant immediately acknowledged that it had made a mistake, and her tweets were raced back.
According to The Verge’s report, Twitter mainly confined Barghouti’s freedom to tweet, follow, retweet, and even like for 12 hours. It’s unclear why her account was wrongly censored in the first place; but Twitter couldn’t confirm if it was a human error or a system failure.
