Twitter bans ‘wishes of harm’ according to its new violent speech policy

Twitter has rolled out its “violent speech” policy that prohibits users from wishing harm to others. Users can’t also glorify or incite violence.

Elon Musk’s changes on Twitter are not yet finished, and the platform is still transitioning to what Musk desires. After mass layoffs in the early days of the takeover, Musk has again laid off another 200 employees from Twitter. The billionaire is now changing the platform’s content policies that putting more restrictions on spreading hate speech and violence.

According to the latest announcement, “wishes of harm” is now banned on Twitter. The company further explains, “This includes (but is not limited to) hoping for others to die, suffer illnesses, tragic incidents, or experience other physically harmful consequences.”

Twitter says it will suspend offending accounts or force the account owner to delete the disputed tweets.

Twitter updates its violent speech policy to ban wishes of harm

This new policy clearly contradicts Twitter’s content moderation policies before Musk’s takeover. As per Twitter’s old policies, “statements that express a wish or hope that someone experiences physical harm” do not violate the platform’s rules. Elon Musk, however, is making a U-turn and bans evil wishes against others.

Twitter also prohibits statements that aim to threaten vital infrastructures and civilian homes. “You may not threaten to inflict physical harm on others, which includes (but is not limited to) threatening to kill, torture, sexually assault, or otherwise hurt someone. Twitter said. “This also includes threatening to damage civilian homes and shelters, or infrastructure that is essential to daily, civic, or business activities.”

Despite improvements that Elon Musk allegedly brought to Twitter, some users argue that Tesla’s CEO is breaking the promises he made before taking over the company in October 2022. The billionaire already said his main incentive to buy Twitter was to protect free speech, and all kinds of speech should be allowed on social media. “I think we would want to err on the side of if in doubt, let the speech exist,” Musk said.