Twitter's New Rules Seek To Curb Hate Speech Targeting Religious Groups

Twitter announced a new set of rules Tuesday intended to curb dehumanizing language on the platform that specifically targets religious groups.

Specifically, the company is expanding its definition of what qualifies as “hateful conduct” to include “language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion.”

For those unfamiliar with the level of discourse on the social media platform, Twitter helpfully provided some examples of now-banned speech that it will remove:

Twitter said the change one of many it intends to implement in the near future regarding what it calls “protected groups” came in response to a survey with 8,000 responses from Twitter users in 30 different countries. Ultimately, the company wants to clarify what type of tweets will be removed.

A Twitter spokesperson emphasized that this type of language was already banned when it targeted someone individually on the basis of their religion. Today’s change just seeks to apply the ban on a broader level to include hate speech against entire groups.

“If someone was targeted directly and dehumanized on the basis of religious or any other defining characteristic, that was and is a violation,” the company’s spokesperson said.