Even the social network admitted the rollout of the rules,
which say anyone can ask Twitter to take down images of themselves posted
without their consent, was marred by malicious reports and its teams' own
errors.
It was just the kind of trouble anti-racism advocates
worried was coming after the policy was announced this week.
Their concerns were quickly validated, with anti-extremism
researcher Kristofer Goldsmith tweeting a screenshot of a far-right
call-to-action circulating on Telegram: "Due to the new privacy policy at
Twitter, things now unexpectedly work more in our favor."
"Anyone with a Twitter account should be reporting
doxxing posts from the following accounts," the message said, with a list
of dozens of Twitter handles.
Gwen Snyder, an organizer and researcher in Philadelphia,
said her account was blocked this week after a report to Twitter about a series
of 2019 photos she said showed a local political candidate at a march organized
by extreme-right group Proud Boys.
Rather than go through an appeal with Twitter she opted to
delete the images and alert others to what was happening.
"Twitter moving to eliminate (my) work from their
platform is incredibly dangerous and is going to enable and embolden
fascists," she told AFP.
In announcing the privacy policy on Tuesday, Twitter noted
that "sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially
violate a person's privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm."
But the rules don't apply to "public figures or
individuals when media and accompanying Tweets are shared in the public
interest or add value to public discourse."
By Friday, Twitter noted the roll out had been rough:
"We became aware of a significant amount of coordinated and malicious
reports, and unfortunately, our enforcement teams made several errors."
"We've corrected those errors and are undergoing an
internal review to make certain that this policy is used as intended," the
firm added.