Twitter bans posting photos of people without their consent

According to Twitter's new policy, photos or videos of private individuals that are shared without their consent will be taken down at their request.

The platform already prevents users from publishing personal information about others without their consent, such as their address or location, phone number, email, and financial information.

“Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy and may lead to emotional or physical harm. The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities”, Twitter wrote in an announcement about the policy change.

The company claims that it requires a "first person report" to verify whether the media contains an image that has been shared without the victim's permission. These reports can come from either the individual in the published post or from a legal representative, such as a guardian or lawyer.

“When we are notified by individuals depicted, or by an authorized representative, that they did not consent to have their private image or video shared, we will remove it,” Twitter wrote.

However, there are two important exceptions to Twitter's new update. These new policies do not apply to media featuring public figures like politicians or celebrities and exclude photos and videos that are "shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse."