Twitter will no longer allow users to share photos or videos of other people without permission

Twitter will no longer allow users to share images or videos of people without consent, the company announced on Tuesday.

Beginning today, we will not allow the sharing of private media, such as images or videos of private individuals without their consent. Publishing people's private info is also prohibited under the policy, as is threatening or incentivizing others to do so.https://t.co/7EXvXdwegG

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) November 30, 2021

“Sharing images is an important part of folks' experience on Twitter. People should have a choice in determining whether or not a photo is shared publicly. To that end we are expanding the scope of our Private Information Policy,” tweeted the company.

The new rule is part of the company’s existing private information policy, which does not allow users to share someone’s private information.

Despite the ban, videos or images of public figures can still be shared.

Twitter also said that images or videos of individuals might also be shared “as part of a newsworthy event or to further public discourse on issues or events of public interest.”

Images or videos of people participating in public events will not violate this policy.

The policy intends to curb the misuse of media to harass, intimidate, and reveal the identity of individuals, which “disproportionately impacts women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.”

In the new policy, if a person reports their image being shared by someone else, the user will have to remove the content and their account will be temporarily blocked.

“While our existing policies and Twitter Rules cover explicit instances of abusive behavior, this update will allow us to take action on media that is shared without any explicit abusive content, provided it’s posted without the consent of the person depicted,” said the company.