Twitter Admits 'Coordinated and Malicious' Activity Weaponizing Its New Privacy Policy

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The story is 156219463.

EditorDavid posted on Saturday December 4, 2016 at 3:34PM from the revenge dept.

CNN reports that a new policy that was put in place this week to protect users from harassment is being abused by malicious actors, just days after journalists, left-wing activists and self-proclaimed "sedition hunters" reported their accounts had been locked for sharing publicly available images of anti. The acknowledgment shows how a large amount of coordinated and malicious activity that led to several errors in the enforcement of the micro-blogging site has been caught. "We've corrected those errors and are undergoing an internal review to make certain that this policy is used as intended to curb the misuse of media to harass or intimidate private individuals," the company said. The new policy on sharing images of private individuals without their consent was unveiled on Tuesday. The rule was created in order to prevent the abuse of its platform to harass and intimidate people, particularly women, activists and minorities. Right-wing groups and anti-mask activists have decided that the new policy on social media will allow them to strike back at those who might draw attention to their real-world identities. In a matter of days, they established a coordinated campaign to flood Twitter with complaints that left-wing activists, Jan. 6 investigators and journalists covering rallies have published their faces without consent in violation of the new rule. The recent message on the Telegram app that was reviewed by CNN said that due to the new privacy policy at Twitter, things now unexpectedly work more in our favor. The message, which has been viewed more than 19,000 times, lists dozens of accounts for supporters to target with claims of violations under the new privacy policy. Some people publicly celebrated "weaponizing" the new rule. A pair of posts on the alternative social media site Gab boasted of making dozens of Twitter reports and urged allies to "stay on the offensive" against "antiFA" and " their doxxing riot videos."

The tool intended to help protect vulnerable individuals has quickly evolved to help shield others from the scrutiny that might stem from their public actions.

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On Tuesday, the company said that its policy is not supposed to apply to large-scale protests. CNN points out that the parts of the policy that were supposed to be followed have not been.

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