Twitter adding tools to deal with abuse

Micro-blogging site Twitter is reportedly in the process of adding more tools and hiring more people to enforce its anti-abuse policies.

As a first step, the company has rearranged some paragraphs in its terms of service, and celebrated the move in a new blog post.

The Verge quoted Megan Cristina, Director (Trust and Safety), as saying that henceforth Twitter will not tolerate behavior intended to harass, intimidate, or use fear to silence another user's voice.

Cristina further revealed that Twitter will continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into abuse.

Twitter has added a significant new section that bans what it terms as "hateful conduct" that targets users on the basis of their race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, disability, or disease.

It has also included a rule that bans creating multiple accounts for the primary purpose of inciting harm toward others based on those categories.

At the same time, the old harassment rules likely prevented this sort of behavior as well.

Cristina said the company is reducing abuse on the platform by requiring abusers to complete a series of steps before their accounts are unlocked, including deleting the offending tweets and verifying a phone number.