Freedom Of Speech, Not 'Freedom Of Reach': Twitter To Restrict Visibility Of Tweets Violating Rules

Twitter said that in case an author feels that the tweet’s visibility was incorrectly limited, they will have an option to submit feedback on the label. 

Twitter said it will limit visibility of tweets violating rules. (Representational Image) ( Image Source :Getty Images )

Social media platform Twitter, in a policy update, has said that it will restrict the visibility of tweets that violate its rules. The visibility filter will initially be applied to tweets that are found violating hateful conduct rules and expand to other domains later, as per a PTI report. The social media firm said that Twitter users have the right to express their opinions and ideas without fear of censorship.

"We also believe it is our responsibility to keep users on our platform safe from content violating our rules. These beliefs are the foundation of freedom of speech, not freedom of reach — our enforcement philosophy which means, where appropriate, restricting the reach of tweets that violate our policies by making the content less discoverable," the firm said.

The social media platform also shared a screenshot as an example of visibility restriction of tweets that may violate Twitter's rule against hateful conduct.

"Restricting the reach of tweets, also known as visibility filtering, is one of the existing enforcement actions that allow us to move beyond the binary 'leave up versus take down' approach to content moderation. However, like other social platforms, we have not historically been transparent when we've taken this action," it said.

As per the report, the company said it will not place ads adjacent to content that is labeled under the new rule.

"Starting soon, we will add publicly visible labels to tweets identified as potentially violating our policies letting you know we've limited their visibility," the microblogging platform said.

In case an author feels that the tweet’s visibility was incorrectly limited, they will have the option to submit feedback on the label. 

"Currently, submitting feedback does not guarantee you will receive a response or that your tweet's reach will be restored. We are working on allowing authors to appeal our decision," it said.