MANILA, Philippines – Twitter on Wednesday, March 1 (February 28, US time), announced changes to its violent speech policies, which add rules against wishing harm on others as well as threatening damage to property or critically important infrastructure.

One of the new rules, according to Twitter’s Violent Speech Policy page, says users “may not wish, hope, or express desire for harm. This includes (but is not limited to) hoping for others to die, suffer illnesses, tragic incidents, or experience other physically harmful consequences.”

Under its “violent threats” subsection, meanwhile, is a short addition protecting property. The rule now says, “You may not threaten to inflict physical harm on others, which includes (but is not limited to) threatening to kill, torture, sexually assault, or otherwise hurt someone. This also includes threatening to damage civilian homes and shelters, or infrastructure that is essential to daily, civic, or business activities.”

The rules make some leeway when there’s a lack of actual abusive context. For example, “hyperbolic and consensual speech between friends,” as well as during discussions of video games and sports events, is apparently allowed. There’s also concessions made for “certain cases of figures of speech, satire, or artistic expression when the context is expressing a viewpoint rather than instigating actionable violence or harm.”

The Verge noted in its report, however, that while this appears new, it was previously filed under its abusive behavior rules, which appear to now be defunct.

The changes also introduce a lack of specificity in terms of who’s being talked about. The old abusive behavior rules state, “You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people.” Compared to this, the new rules now use the term “others,” which is a more general contextualization compared to noting individuals or specific groups of people – including marginalized groups.

No word has been given regarding who will be in charge of moderating Twitter in light of these rules changes, however, as its CEO Elon Musk has gutted many divisions, including cuts to its trust and safety teams, which does include content moderation staff. It also no longer has a communications team, leaving any questions or hackles raised regarding the rules changes unanswered for the most part. – Rappler.com