Twitter decides to remove tweets that harm people’s religious beliefs

It is not up to me, or anyone else, to judge people’s religious beliefs. And Twitter would be the first online social network that will start respecting those beliefs. The company has just announced in a Twitter Safety blog that starting today, It will require tweets that use “dehumanizing language” to target specific religious groups to be removed when a user will report them to Twitter.

The micro-blogging site has announced an update to its policies which is aimed at addressing hateful language directed at religious groups, which is a significant change in how the platform moderates against hate speech. A blog post by Twitter reads;

“After months of conversations and feedback from the public, external experts and our own teams, we’re expanding our rules against hateful conduct to include language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion. Our primary focus is on addressing the risks of offline harm, and research shows that dehumanizing language increases that risk.”

More specifically, the company stated that it would remove tweets that describe religious groups to be “disgusting” or “filthy animals”. Here are examples of tweets that now violate Twitter policies.

Though this would be a first step by any social network to restrict haters of religious views, YouTube had also taken steps to remove harmful content against religions on a special occasion. Recently in India, YouTube blocked local access to some videos of protests and those that used offensive language against religious leaders because it determined that they violated local laws prohibiting speech that could initiate hostility among two communities.

It must be noted that Users will have to essentially report harmful tweets to Twitter if they want the company to remove them.