Twitter said in a blog post-Tuesday that it has revised its privacy policy to allow it to remove photographs of people that have been shared without their knowledge. The social media behemoth now restricts the posting of people's private information, such as addresses, phone numbers, identity documents, and medical data, under its existing policy.
It has now added "private media" to the list, claiming that sharing such material might be used to "harass, intimidate, and betray individual identities." Before removing the image or video, Twitter said it would need a first-hand report or a report from an authorized representative to determine whether the person consented to it being shared. Twitter claimed that once it determined that personal information had been released without authorization, it would delete it from the platform. The policy modifications, it stated, do not apply when the public interest is at issue or when there is an emergency crisis.