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Twitter has changed their policy and procedures for their site, but is it a good or bad thing? Apparently if you believe in Gamergate it might be a bad thing, and the same could be said for Anti-Gamergate and Feminism. Under the new policy changes, Twitter is looking to crack down on eradicating harassment and creating a more inclusive environment on their platform. They have revised the “Twitter Rules,” but how realistic are they compared to what we’ve seen from the Safety and Twitter admins so far?

“Our goal is to provide a service that allows you to discover and receive content from sources that interest you as well as to share your content with others. We respect the ownership of the content that users share and each user is responsible for the content he or she provides. Because of these principles, we do not actively monitor and will not censor user content, except in limited circumstances described below.”

Targeted Abuse: You may not engage in targeted abuse or harassment. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be targeted abuse or harassment are:
- if you are sending messages to a user from multiple accounts;
- if the sole purpose of your account is to send abusive messages to others;
- if the reported behavior is one-sided or includes threats

This seems a little vague, as if you are engaged in a heated discussion with someone, it’s hard to tell whether or not the conversation is one-sided. Furthermore even if it is, Twitter, who is the host in this case, has no political ground to stand on in mediating the situation realistically. What this says is basically if you create a sockpuppet account, threaten anyone in any way, which could include reporting them for targeted abuse—your account could be suspended. The ridiculouness continues below though, please read on.

Impersonation: You may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others.
Trademark: We reserve the right to reclaim usernames on behalf of businesses or individuals that hold legal claim or trademark on those usernames. Accounts using business names and/or logos to mislead others may be permanently suspended.
Private information: You may not publish or post other people’s private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, street address or Social Security/National Identity numbers, without their express authorization and permission. You may not post intimate photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject’s consent.
Violence and Threats: You may not publish or post threats of violence against others or promote violence against others.
Copyright: We will respond to clear and complete notices of alleged copyright infringement. Our copyright procedures are set forth in the Terms of Service.
Unlawful Use: You may not use our service for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities. International users agree to comply with all local laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content.

As far as Doxxing is concerned, and participating in retweeting or faving a tweet someone poked fun at someone with, malicious or not you could lose your account. All they have to do is report it, and you could be out. Now one question comes to mind before we get to the last part of these revised rules. Why? Why revise the rules and begin incorporating all of this now? I remember when people reported Randi Harper for the Ggautoblocker, and Brianna Wu for calling out other people like Ralph of Theralphretort.com and nothing happened at all. Safety didn’t look into it, and Twitter didn’t take action.

However all of a sudden Brianna Wu claims to have had over 100+ accounts suspended in as little as 24 hours after she and her personal assistant did it. What does that sound like? A hostile takeover of a singular platform. If you don’t believe it, look at Tumblr, it’s primarily feminist now.

Here’s the last part of the Twitter Rules revisions:

Your account may be suspended for Terms of Service violations if any of the above is true. Please see our help pages on Following rules and best practices and Automation rules and best practices for a more detailed discussion of how the Rules apply to those particular account behaviors. Accounts created to replace suspended accounts will be permanently suspended.

Accounts engaging in any of these behaviors may be investigated for abuse. Accounts under investigation may be removed from Search for quality. Twitter reserves the right to immediately terminate your account without further notice in the event that, in its judgment, you violate these Rules or the Terms of Service.

We may revise these Rules from time to time; the most current version will always be at twitter.com/rules.

I want to direct your attention to two key parts of the rules. The parts in bold should be of particular interest to you as a user. Pay close attention to how they sound when you say them aloud. Sounds like a recipe for Twitter catering to a certain demographic doesn’t it? We thought you would agree. Here’s how things might get shaken up though.

Twitter is struggling really hard at the moment.

Randi Harper, the creator of the GGautoblocker is friends with someone on the development team, who writes the code for Twitter. If what many have been saying is true: She has an insider allowing her to create block lists, that’s grounds for serious litigation, or at the very least a huge consumer revolt. Now while no proof that im personally aware of exists, we should still stay on high alert. In the recent screen capture’s we’ve seen Brianna claiming more accounts have been suspended since the implementation of these rules.

What are your thoughts on the new Twitter Rules? Let us know in the comments or online!

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

Kenay Peterson
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheDark_Mage