Social media platforms are being used by most of the people today. Why Because there is a freedom of speech. However, a new policy update by Twitter says that the company will allow the users the freedom of speech, not the freedom of reach. According to the new policy update declared by Elon Musk, Twitter will restrict visibility of tweets that violate its rules.Twitter will first apply the visibility filter to a tweet to determine it does not promote hateful behaviour and then extend it to the other domains. As per the social networking service, users are free to share their views and beliefs without worrying about being silenced.Twitter is taking this fresh step towards greater transparency on the platform by informing users when a tweets visibility has been restricted for violating the companys “Hateful Conduct” policy.Weve heard from many of you that you want to know what Freedom of Speech, Not Reach looks like in practice. This is the label thatll be displayed when weve limited the visibility of a Tweet. Keep the feedback coming! https://t.co/AUYDP2kYPi pic.twitter.com/BaJuSfcz0q— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) April 17, 2023According to Twitters policy, hostile behaviour includes racial or gender-based slugs, intimidation tactics, and allusions to images that promote hatred.What will Elon Musk do with the hate speech tweetElon Musk said that tweets with this classification will have limited visibility on the platform, which refers to Twitters algorithm limiting its ability to be found via search or discovered through recommendations. As a result, fewer people will see the content.According to him, the limited visibility will only affect some specific offending tweets and accounts. However, the company also disclosed that the user will not be penalised for it in any way.The company further said that users will be able to submit appeals if they think Twitter incorrectly labelled their tweet. Additionally, Twitter stated that it will “continue to remove illegal content and suspend bad actors” from the site.What violates this policyAs per Twitter guidelines, the company will get to know of accounts engaging in any sort of hate speech activities, be it via tweets or Direct Messages. Twitter will then investigate and take appropriate action. Twitter prohibits inciting behaviour that targets individuals or groups of people belonging to protected categories.What happens if someone violates the policyAccording to the official website, “We take legal action against behaviour that engages in hateful conduct against specific people or an entire protected class. Targeting can take place in a variety of ways, such as remarks, incorporating a persons photo, using their full name, etc.”“We take into account a variety of things when deciding how to punish someone for breaking this policy, including their prior history of breaking rules and how serious the infringement was,” it added. Possible methods of enforcing this policy against material include the following: Removing the Tweet from search results, in-product recommendations, trends, alerts, and home timelines reduces the visibility of material on Twitter.Limiting a search of the Tweet to the authors profileLimiting engagement metrics such as Likes, Replies, Retweets, Quote Tweets, Bookmarks, Share, or Pin to Profile Excluding advertising from appearing next to the TweetRemoving Tweets wherever required.For instance, we may demand that the offender delete the offensive material and spend some time in read-only mode before allowing them to tweet once more.Accounts that go against our “Hateful Profile” policy will be suspended.
