Twitter’s investors are responding favorably to the implementation of new rules meant to curb harassment and abusive behavior on the platform.
The company’s stock is trading up nearly 10 percent midday following a Monday morning crackdown on hateful conduct.
The new rules, which provide more specific policies about violent and hateful, were first introduced in November. Already, several accounts — including those belonging to alt-right groups such as American Renaissance and Britain First — appear to have been suspended due to the implementation of the policies. A Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment about which accounts had been removed.
“Today, we are starting to enforce these policies across Twitter,” reads a statement on the Twitter safety blog. “In our efforts to be more aggressive here, we may make some mistakes and are working on a robust appeals process. We’ll evaluate and iterate on these changes in the coming days and weeks, and will keep you posted on progress along the way.”
While the company’s new policies take a much more aggressive stance against harassment, Twitter has said that some accounts, including that of President Donald Trump, won’t be suspended for violating policies if they are deemed newsworthy or in the public interest.
Twitter has come under fire for abuse of its platform. Critics have called on the company to do more to prevent hate speech, bullying and harassment. A series of high-profile incidents, including the suspension of actress Rose McGowan’s account after she posted a series of tweets about Harvey Weinstein, have increased the scrutiny over Twitter’s handling of harassment.
