Twitter, which has long been known a stalwart champion of free speech on the Internet, makes a slight adjustment to its policies with the announcement that it will now remove the photos and videos of deceased individuals if their family members request it.
The news comes just a week after Robin Williams' daughter Zelda announced that she will no longer use Twitter, as well as Instagram and Tumblr, after abusive users sent her Photoshopped images of her father's death.
"In order to respect the wishes of loved ones, Twitter will remove imagery of deceased individuals in certain circumstances," says Twitter in one of its support pages. "Immediate family members and other authorized individuals may request the removal of images or video of deceased individuals, from when critical injury occurs to the moments before or after death, by sending an e-mail to privacy@twitter.com."
Family members who wish to have images or videos of their beloved dead be removed from the site will have to provide Twitter a copy of the individual's death certificate and a government-issued identification card to provide proof of kinship. Twitter, however, does not provide family members access to a deceased person's account.
Twitter's announcement also comes hot on the heels of a public outcry caused by a viral video of photojournalist James Foley who was beheaded by Islamic militant groups in Syria making the rounds on the micro-blogging platform, and of some photos of the slain body of Michael Brown, the Ferguson teenager who was killed in an altercation with the Missouri police.
On Wednesday morning, Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo made a rare statement regarding the case of Foley, saying that Twitter will suspend the accounts of those who post a video of the beheading.
We have been and are actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery. Thank you https://t.co/jaYQBKVbBF
— dick costolo (@dickc) August 20, 2014
Twitter does not have a specific algorithm that tracks and monitors its users' news feeds, simply allowing users to determine what makes it to the news and what doesn't. This has made Twitter one of the most powerful channels of communication on the Internet. Twitter also does not explicitly prohibit graphic or violent imagery but says it does not tolerate "direct, specific threats of violence" and "obscene or pornographic images."
The new policy, however, comes with a caveat. Twitter does not promise to honor all media removal requests, such as in the case of newsworthy images and videos deemed to be of "public interest."
