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 | Shorter | 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 anyone with violence. | 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. | You must not threaten, incite or promote terrorism or violent extremism. | Moved Physical harm from the “harassment” category to the violence one. |
Child sexual exploitation | We have zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation on Twitter | You must not sexually exploit children. | “zero tolerance” is a ghastly, and meaningless, statement. |
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, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or illness. | Promoting violence, threatening and harrassing is already banned above. |
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 promote or encourage suicide or self-harm. | Good! |
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 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. | 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 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. | |
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.
Generalised to all private and sensitive information. | |
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! |