Twitter will remove images and video of people shared without consent

Twitter is planning to remove images or video of private individuals shared without consent.

The social media platform has introduced the new rule which means tweeting images of people without their permission is against the site’s policies, and they can now be removed on request.

The company wrote: “Sharing images is an important part of folks’ experience on Twitter.

“People should have a choice in determining whether or not a photo is shared publicly. To that end we are expanding the scope of our Private Information Policy.

“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.”

twitter noted the policy update should “help curb the misuse of media to harass, intimidate, and reveal the identities of private individuals, which disproportionately impacts women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities”.

They noted that images or footage of people in public events – such as “large scale protests” and sporting events – would not violate the policy.

The Twitter Safety team continued: “Context matters. Our existing private information policy includes many exceptions in order to enable robust reporting on newsworthy events and conversations that are in the public interest.

“We will take into consideration whether the image is publicly available and/or is being covered by journalists — 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.”