Twitter ghost deletes offensive tweets

Move comes a week after Twitter started blocking accounts temporarily for using offensive language

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IANS New York
Last Updated : Feb 22 2017 | 5:18 PM IST

Twitter is 'ghost' deleting offensive tweets, most certainly in line with its campaign to weed out the offensive and harassing content and make the platform safe for its users.

According to a report in Heatstreet, when Twitter 'ghost' deletes tweets it deems offensive, it appears on the timeline of the person who writes it while others cannot read it.

The move comes a week after Twitter started blocking accounts temporarily for using offensive language.

Twitter user John Sweeney (@SuperNerdLand) was the first to notice that the micro-blogging site had 'ghost' deleted his offensive tweet.

He was able to read that tweet but the rest of the users were redirected to an error page if they even tried to enter the URL manually.

However, users have blamed the micro-blogging site for removing tweets which are not offensive in nature.

A tweet about an Indian politician's wedding was also deleted mysteriously, with the user alleging that his post contained nothing offensive.

Twitter has been claiming that it "prohibits the promotion of hate content, sensitive topics, and violence globally".

Recently, the micro-blogging site rolled an update that would collapse abusive or low-quality tweets as well as introduce a safer search feature where sensitive content is hidden.

The company also announced that users who are banned permanently cannot return to Twitter.

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First Published: Feb 22 2017 | 5:17 PM IST

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