Twitter Updates Policy To Combat Revenge Porn

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Twitter has a new privacy policy. The company says if you post a video or photo that is intimate in nature, you must get permission from whoever is in it. NPR's Aarti Shahani has more.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE: Twitter has made a long-awaited and decisive move against revenge porn.

CINDY SOUTHWORTH: These types of threats in doing harmful things to ex-partners, it's not a new phenomenon.

SHAHANI: Cindy Southworth, with the National Network to End Domestic Violence, helps advise Twitter.

SOUTHWORTH: What is different with technology is the long-lasting and devastating impact on survivors' lives. And we don't want a battered woman's great-grandchildren to see salacious, insensitive and really inappropriate photos.

SHAHANI: If you've been featured and there's no evidence that you ever gave consent, you lodge a complaint, a team inside Twitter will verify it's you and hide the post from public view. Meanwhile, the offender's account gets locked, and they've got to delete the post before they can tweet again. If Twitter determines the intent was to harass, the user could be suspended altogether. Christina Gagnier, a board member of Without My Consent, notes the new policy covers a range of private content, not just explicit but also Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses.

CHRISTINA GAGNIER: What they're tying to tackle is information that was disclosed in a private context and there was no permission for that information to be put out publicly. And then that information is being used to victimize someone.

SHAHANI: The company says its Trust and Safety team will work 24/7, and it's confident it can process all reports of violations in a timely manner. Aarti Shahani, NPR News, San Francisco. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.