Twitter Introduces New Rules With Fears of Mass Account ‘Purges’ To Come

Twitter Account Purges

In November, Twitter announced its new rules to deal with the problem of abuse, hate speech and general behavior on their social media platform.

As of Monday the 18th of December, these rules have now officially come into effect. These changes, however, have led many to believe in a report via Metro that this may spark a fresh ‘purge’ of accounts.

It has been a difficult year for the social media platform in regards to its public relations. Many, however, feel that the way Twitter has taken to deal with them has also been counter-productive.

For example, only last month Twitter removed a number of ‘verified’ ticks from many prominent members accounts. While the social media site attempted to claim that this was a mean of removing any implication of official endorsement from the site (a claim their verified tick has often been mistaken for) many simply saw this as a crackdown on right-wing commentators. In fairness to this latter view, the left did appear to come out of this prior crackdown reasonably unscathed.

This, incidentally, was nothing to do with Donald Trumps Twitter account being deleted. At least, not officially.

New guidelines

The new guidelines were introduced as a reported crackdown on ‘hate-speech’ and ‘misinformation’. The latter being something the BBC recently fell victim to.

Many fear, however, that the new guidelines go too far. As such, with the new rules being implemented today, many expect a number of accounts to be banned or removed as part of a ‘purge’ and while we have yet to see any of these fears being realized yet, in fairness, it’s not unlikely.

Such changes in their design have caused much outcry from critics. Many of whom feel that the social media site may be straying too far away from their original mandate.

Ultimately, I think that Twitter has found themselves victims of mainstream PC constraints. Initially being an edgy alternative to Facebook, they are slowly turning into exactly the same. This has led to sites such as Gab finding themselves profiting from the changes. They are the new ‘edgy’ social media platform until it seems, they become mainstream too.

What do you think? Are the changes too much? Has Twitter lost its identity? Will they lose out to competitors? – Let us know in the comments!