Twitter suspends accounts of British far-right group leaders

Soon after announcing its implementation of revised rules on hate speech, Twitter has suspended the accounts of two leaders of a British far-right group, media reported.

Britain First's leader Paul Golding and his deputy Jayda Fransen can no longer tweet and their past posts no longer appear, the BBC reported on Monday.

Fransen hogged the global limelight when US President Donald Trump retweeted in November some of her posts featuring controversial anti-Muslim videos.

Twitter on Monday warned that to reduce hateful and abusive content on the platform, it would start enforcing updates to the Twitter Rules announced in November.

The microblogging site said it would include "hateful imagery and display names", or those who "use username, display name, or profile bio to engage in abusive behaviour".

"Specific threats of violence or wishing for serious physical harm, death, or disease to an individual or group of people is in violation of our policies," Twitter said.

Accounts that affiliate with organisations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes also violate Twitter's revised policies.

Content that glorifies violence or the perpetrators of a violent act is also in violation of Twitter policies.

"We will require offending Tweets to be removed and repeated violations will result in permanent suspension," Twitter said.

--IANS

gb/sac