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Twitter account crackdown expands to Periscope live videos; will suspend violators

Twitter's live video broadcaster Periscope has now introduced a new set of Community Guidelines, that will regulate the nature of live video content, as well as their chat windows. 

Twitter’s crackdown on abusive content will also cover live broadcasting from the platform. In a post on Medium, Periscope, the live video service, that mediates Twitter’s livestream content, said that it would introduce a new set of Periscope Community Guidelines. These rules will not only apply to the video content, but also be applicable on the chats sent during such broadcasts.

The Periscope Community Guidelines, that will get into effect from August 10, will account for broadcasts made via Twitter or Periscope. Through these rules, group moderation will help Periscope decide if certain chats are if an abusive or offensive nature. Once that is determined, users found in violation will be suspended from the platform.

This list will not only be created from new broadcasts, so users will also be able to report older livestreams for abusive or offensive content. According to TechCrunch, the latest efforts from Periscope to regulate content come after a ‘flash juries’ update it had created two years ago, with a similar motive.

Twitter has been cleaning up its act, in its effort to remove explicit content, and eliminate automated accounts, or ‘bots’, from the platform. This will also draw a line regarding the nature of content, where Twitter has come under criticism over increasing online abuse and hate speeches.

While these changes come into effect, the micro-blogging platform has had to fall in line with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), so that user privacy is not compromised. Recently, the company had reported a loss of 20 per cent in its Q2 2018 results, while having lost over a million users in its crackdown. Twitter currently has 335 million monthly active users.