A more ‘lenient’ Twitter
Twitter has been “proactively” reinstating accounts that were previously banned. “We did not reinstate accounts that engaged in illegal activity, threats of harm or violence, large-scale spam and platform manipulation, or when there was no recent appeal to have the account reinstated,” said Twitter in the tweet. Twitter further said that starting February 1, “anyone can appeal an account suspension and be evaluated under our new criteria for reinstatement.”
Twitter has also made it clear that going forward, it will take less severe actions, “such as limiting the reach of policy-violating Tweets or asking you to remove Tweets before you can continue using your account.” The social media platform also said that “account suspension will be reserved for severe or ongoing, repeat violations of our policies.”
What can get you banned on Twitter?
According to the tweet, severe violations include but are not limited to: “engaging in illegal content or activity, inciting or threatening violence or harm, privacy violations, platform manipulation or spam, and engaging in targeted harassment of our users.”
Twitter had earlier said that accounts will only get banned now if “a person has violated the Twitter Rules in a particularly egregious way, or has repeatedly violated them even after receiving notifications from us.”
Permanent suspensions will lead to violators not being allowed to create new accounts. “When we permanently suspend an account, we notify people that they have been suspended for abuse violations, and explain which policy or policies they have violated and which content was in violation,” notes the Twitter rules and guidelines. However, violators can appeal permanent suspensions if they believe they were wrongly banned by Twitter.