Twitter Rules

Note: we may need to change these rules from time to time in order to support our goal of promoting a healthy public conversation. The most current version is always available at https://twitter.com/rules.

Rule	Twitter Content	JC suggestion	Commentary
Violence	You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence.	You must not incite, glorify or threaten violence, terrorism, or violent extremism.	Groups are collections of individuals. Specific cultural groups are already covered elsewhere.
Terrorism/violent extremism	You may not threaten or promote terrorism or violent extremism.		These are all types of violence. Separating them creates the impression that they are somehow qualitatively different.
Child sexual exploitation	We have zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation on Twitter	You must not sexually exploit anyone.	“zero tolerance” is a ghastly, and meaningless, statement. And why just children? Is it okay to exploit adults?
Abuse/harassment	You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. This includes wishing or hoping that someone experiences physical harm.	You must not harass anyone, or incite anyone else to do so.	Harm moves to the violence category. Harassment is a different category.
Hateful conduct	You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.	You may not discriminate against other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or illness.	Promoting violence, threatening and harassing is already banned above. This feels like it ought to be “discriminate against”: one can be quite derogatory and unpleasant in a hateful way without harassing or being violent.
Perpetrators of violent attacks	We will remove any accounts maintained by individual perpetrators of terrorist, violent extremist, or mass violent attacks, and may also remove Tweets disseminating manifestos or other content produced by perpetrators		This is a consequence of action, not an action, and does not fit here. Presumably Twitter will remove accounts or tweets of those who breach any of the rules.
Suicide or self-harm	You may not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm.	You must not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm.	Arguably suicide is really a type of self-harm.
Sensitive media, including graphic violence and adult content	You may not post media that is excessively gory or share violent or adult content within live video or in profile or header images. Media depicting sexual violence and/or assault is also not permitted.	You may not share gory, violent or adult content unless there is a public interest, and you post suitable warnings.	Excessively invites value judgments and arguments. Does Twitter want gory, violent or adult context at all (with an exception for news reporting)?
Illegal or certain regulated goods or services	You may not use our service for any unlawful purpose or in furtherance of illegal activities. This includes selling, buying, or facilitating transactions in illegal goods or services, as well as certain types of regulated goods or services.	You must not use Twitter to break any laws or regulations. You must not use it to buy or sell illegal goods or services.	Can be made more direct. the “buying and selling” gloss somewhat detracts from the basic point.
Private information	You may not publish or post other people’s private information (such as home phone number and address) without their express authorization and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so.	You may not post, threaten to post, or encourage anyone else to post, another person’s private information (including images) without the person’s permission.	Generalized to all private and sensitive information, including sensitive content. Not obvious reason why these should be treated differently.
Non-consensual nudity	You may not post or share intimate photos or videos of someone that were produced or distributed without their consent		Wrapped into private information. This one seems wrong: why separate to “private” information, or “adult” content?
Platform manipulation and spam	You may not use Twitter’s services in a manner intended to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience on Twitter.	You must not amplify or suppress information to manipulate or disrupt other people’s experience on Twitter.
Civic Integrity	You may not use Twitter’s services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes. This includes posting or sharing content that may suppress participation or mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process.	You must not illegally manipulate or interfere in elections or other civic processes. This includes sharing content that may prevent participation or mislead people about when, where, or how to participate.
Misleading and Deceptive Identities	You may not impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations to mislead, confuse, or deceive others, nor use a fake identity in a manner that disrupts the experience of others on Twitter.	You may not impersonate anyone in a way that will mislead, confuse, or deceive anyone.
Synthetic and manipulated media	You may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm. In addition, we may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context.	You may not share manipulated media in a way that is likely to mislead or offend anyone.	The “labelling” clause suggests that, actually you can use manipulated media. It is stronger without this caveat.
Copyright and trademark	You may not violate others’ intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark.	You may not violate others’ copyrights, patents and trademarks.	Okay, but — much of social media is basically predicated on doing exactly that, with loosely inferred permission.
Changes	We may need to change these rules from time to time in order to support our goal of promoting a healthy public conversation. The most current version is always available at https://twitter.com/rules.	We may change these rules from time to time. The most current version is always available at https://twitter.com/rules	Don’t give a reason!