Elon Musk's Twitter Updates 'Zero Tolerance' Violent Speech Policy – Variety

Elon Musk-owned Twitter, seeking to reassure users and advertisers that it’s taking a hard-line stand against violent speech, released an update to its policies that more explicitly bans certain types of threats. According to the updated policy, released Feb. 28, Twitter 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.” Previously, such “wishes of harm” were not actionable under the company’s violent threats policy, which was last updated in March 2019 (although such threats may have been reviewed under its policies regarding abusive behavior and hateful conduct). In addition, Twitter’s updated Violent Speech policy bans “inciting others to commit atrocity crimes including crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide,” which also includes using coded language (aka “dog whistles”) to indirectly incite violence. Furthermore, the updated policy — in addition to prohibiting threats to physically harm others — also bans threatening to “damage civilian homes and shelters, or infrastructure that is essential to daily, civic or business activities.” The updated policy also includes new verbiage explaining that Twitter will allow certain exceptions, including usage of “figures of speech
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