Twitter Mistakenly Suspends Several Accounts
Several Twitter users complain about their accounts being suspended due to the tech giant's new anti-harassment policy that far-right supporters have used to their benefit.
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The social network admitted itself that its new update was followed by user complaints and errors from the tech giant's own team.
Twitter's new picture permission policy was aimed at combating online abuse, but US activists and researchers said Friday that far-right supporters have employed it to protect themselves from scrutiny and to harass opponents.
The social network admitted itself that the new update, which says anyone can ask Twitter to take down images of themselves posted without their consent, was followed by complaints and errors from the tech giant's own team.
It was just the kind of trouble anti-racism advocates worried was coming after the policy was announced this week.
Their concerns were quickly validated, with anti-extremism researcher Kristofer Goldsmith tweeting a screenshot of a far-right call-to-action circulating on Telegram: "Due to the new privacy policy at Twitter, things now unexpectedly work more in our favour."
"Anyone with a Twitter account should be reporting doing posts from the following accounts," the message said, with a list of dozens of Twitter handles.
NEW: Last night nazis of Charlottesville-riot-infamy instructed thousands of followers to mass-report accounts of 48 journalists, anti-racist activists, + anti-fascist researchers for retroactive "violations" of @TwitterSafety's new "Private Information Policy." Some down already pic.twitter.com/F711lkrEkk
— Kristofer Goldsmith (@KrisGoldsmith85) December 2, 2021
Gwen Snyder, an organizer and researcher in Philadelphia, reported that her account was blocked this week after a report to Twitter about a series of 2019 photos she said showed a local political candidate at a march organized by extreme-right group Proud Boys.
By Friday, Twitter noted the new update had been rough: "We became aware of a significant amount of coordinated and malicious reports, and unfortunately, our enforcement teams made several errors."
"We've corrected those errors and are undergoing an internal review to make certain that this policy is used as intended," the firm added.
