Twitter Bans Sharing Photos, Videos Of Private People Without Their Consent

Twitter on Tuesday banned the sharing of photos and videos of private individuals without their consent, the company said in a blog post. The update to its private information policy notes people can contact them to have such media removed from the microblogging platform.

It doesn't apply to public figures if the media and tweet are of public interest, but content featuring those people may be removed if the site determines it's been shared "to harass, intimidate, or use fear to silence them."

"We will always try to assess the context in which the content is shared and, in such cases, we may allow the images or videos to remain on the service," it said. If the image or video is publicly available, being covered by news outlets or "adds value to the public discourse," it may be allowed to remain on the site, Twitter said.