New Twitter CEO Bans Users From Posting Photos, Videos Of Strangers Without Consent

On Tuesday, Nov. 30, as the social media giant's CEO Jack Dorsey steps down from his post, Twitter has banned sharing videos and images of private individuals, as the company believes this could be used to harass and intimidate women and minorities.

In an effort to reduce the possible harassment experienced by women, minorities, and activists, Twitter has decided to create a ban on the sharing of pictures and videos of private individuals without their consent, though they have clarified that posts of public figures or ones that add to the public discourse will not be removed, according to the New York Post.

“Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm,” Twitter said in a statement. “The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.”

These measures were made as a response to the prevalent harassment of individuals on the platform, including "doxxing," which is the act of publishing private information online for the purpose of further tormenting an individual.

Though Twitter will not require consent for every video or photo posted, they will take down posts if the individual in question or a representative of that individual reports it. They said, however, that they will weigh its importance to the public discourse before doing so, Tech Crunch reported.

“Context matters. Our existing private information policy includes many exceptions in order to enable robust reporting on newsworthy events and conversations that are in the public interest,” they clarified in a tweet.

This news comes as Jack Dorsey steps down from being the CEO of Twitter, with Parag Agrawal, its chief technological officer, being named as his replacement. Agrawal was unanimously voted by Twitter’s board of directors to be CEO, according to CNN.

“Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around. He's curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul,” Dorsey said in a memo about Agrawal.