推特周五承认，本周公布的一项保护用户免受骚扰的新政策正被恶意行为者滥用——几天前，记者、左翼活动人士和自称为“煽动叛乱者”的人报告称，他们的账户已被锁定，无法公开分享。反面具者、反疫苗抗议者和疑似国会叛乱分子的图像。
这一承认突显了 Twitter 是如何被它在一份声明中描述为“大量协调和恶意”活动导致 Twitter 执法中的“几个错误”而措手不及的。
“我们已经纠正了这些错误，并正在接受内部审查，以确保该政策按预期使用——以遏制滥用媒体来骚扰或恐吓个人，”推特说。
周二公布的 Twitter 新政策禁止未经个人同意分享私人图像。 Twitter 最初表示，制定该规则是为了防止其平台被滥用来骚扰和恐吓人们，尤其是女性、活动家和少数族裔。
但右翼团体和反蒙面活动人士很快确定，新的 Twitter 政策提供了一个机会，可以反击那些可能会引起人们关注其真实身份的人。几天之内，他们发起了一项协调运动，向 Twitter 发出大量投诉，称左翼活动人士、1 月 6 日报道集会的调查人员和记者违反新规定未经同意公开了他们的面孔。
今年 1 月，塞缪尔·布拉斯洛 (Samuel Braslow) 为 56 岁的当地报纸比佛利山信使 (Beverly Hills Courier) 报道了洛杉矶购物中心的反蒙面抗议活动，他是该报的一名记者。在公开活动期间，布拉斯洛在推特上发布了一段反蒙面者与商场官员对峙的视频——这是数字报道时代的常见做法。
布拉斯洛不可能知道，本周，有人会提交一份关于同样的新闻摄影的报告，并导致 Twitter 锁定他的帐户。投诉导致布拉斯洛无法发布推文，直到他成功对报告提出上诉或删除旧推文。他被困住了。
随着社交媒体平台的新政策已成为战场，布拉斯洛发生的事情越来越多地在更广泛的 Twitterverse 上上演。
“由于 Twitter 的新隐私政策，事情现在出乎意料地更对我们有利，因为我们可以更轻松地删除 Antifa f****t doxxing 页面，”最近在加密消息应用 Telegram 上看到的一条消息经过了审查。美国有线电视新闻网。该消息已被查看超过 19,000 次，其中列出了数十个 Twitter 帐户，供支持者根据新隐私政策提出违规索赔。目标之一是屡获殊荣的调查新闻机构 Bellingcat。
在提交此类报告后，一些人公开庆祝“武器化”Twitter 的新规则。美国有线电视新闻网在另类社交媒体网站 Gab 上审查的一对帖子吹嘘做了数十篇 Twitter 报道，并敦促盟友“继续进攻”，反对“antifa”和“他们的人肉骚乱视频”。
迅速展开的运动突显了一种旨在帮助保护弱势个体的工具如何迅速发展，以帮助保护他人免受可能因他们的公共行为而受到的审查。
截至周五上午，Twitter 上的几个追踪右翼极端分子和国会骚乱参与者的开源图像的帐户已被私人媒体政策暂停，这可能危及执法的重要信息来源以及调查 1 月 6 日起义的联邦检察官。洛杉矶摄像师肖恩·贝克纳-卡米切尔 (Sean Beckner-Carmitchel) 告诉美国有线电视新闻网，他的帐户被锁定，因为他在推特上收到了有关他 1 月份发布的反疫苗集会和反抗议视频的报道。
一些团体援引该政策的速度、规模和热情——以及众多执法错误——促使一些专家得出结论，推特的政策适得其反。
Twitter 拒绝向 CNN 描述如何审查报告以及哪些报告可能由人类而非人工智能处理。
前联合国言论自由问题特别报告员戴维·凯伊 (David Kaye) 表示，推特应该恢复政策并重新回到绘图板。
“从各方面来看，推特的新‘隐私政策'是失败的，是善意的（也许），但被滥用和发挥，”他在推特上写道。 “他们应该诚实——承认它还没有准备好迎接黄金时段。”
Twitter 的新政策明确不偏袒任何一方，称“每个人”都可能因未经同意共享图像而受到伤害，这可能会导致情感或身体伤害。
Twitter 表示，该政策通常不适用于公众活动中的人物形象，例如“大规模抗议”或体育赛事。 Twitter 补充说，该公司将允许例外，并允许“由于公共利益价值而成为具有新闻价值的事件的一部分”的人的图像。
但至少在几个案例中，Twitter 自身政策的这些方面似乎没有得到遵循。
“[我的] 帖子中的视频清楚地代表了具有新闻价值的内容，因为它们随后被多个附属电台和国家媒体挑选播出，”布拉斯洛说，他之前曾出现在 CNN 上讨论他对反疫苗集会的报道。
人权第一创新实验室的高级研究员克里斯托弗·戈德史密斯 (Kristofer Goldsmith) 一直在推特上发布有关正在展开的争议的例子，他说，围绕 Twitter 政策的斗争不仅仅是关于 Twitter。他说，这也凸显了对在其他社交平台上进行组织的担忧，这些平台可能不像 Twitter 那样受到严格审查。
反法西斯活动家查德·洛德 (Chad Loder) 说：“将极右翼目前的大规模报道行动视为正在进行的、齐心协力、共同努力以记忆他们罪行的证据的最新举措，这一点非常重要。”他们的 Twitter 帐户记录了极右翼极端主义和警察不当行为的例子。
周四，Loder 表示，他们陷入了报告、帐户锁定和上诉的“无休止循环”中，因为他们的一条推文是根据政策报告的，在上诉后由 Twitter 恢复，然后在同一天再次报告，导致与同一条推文相关的另一个临时暂停。据洛德说，这条推文包含一张参与 1 月 6 日国会起义的人的照片。
肯·怀特 (Ken White) 是代表洛德 (Loder) 的洛杉矶律师，专门研究《第一修正案》(First Amendment) 法律——有些人可能更熟悉他的推特角色 @Popehat，他表示 Twitter 长期以来一直在努力解决其报告工具被滥用的问题。
“这项新政策更是如此，”他告诉 CNN。 “看看它是如何被用来删除那些一直在识别和记录 1 月 6 日不法行为者的帐户的。他们不可能不知道会发生这种情况，而且他们没有计划好，这令人费解。”
Right-wing activists are openly 'weaponizing' Twitter's new private media policy
Twitter acknowledged on Friday that a new policy it unveiled this week to protect users from harassment is being abused by malicious actors — days after journalists, left-wing activists and self-described "sedition hunters" reported their accounts had been locked for sharing publicly available images of anti-maskers, anti-vaccine protesters and suspected Capitol insurrectionists.
The acknowledgment highlights how Twitter has been caught flat-footed by what it described in a statement as "a significant amount of coordinated and malicious" activity that led to "several errors" in Twitter's enforcement.
"We've corrected those errors and are undergoing an internal review to make certain that this policy is used as intended — to curb the misuse of media to harass or intimidate private individuals," Twitter said.
Unveiled on Tuesday, Twitter's new policy prohibits the sharing of images of private individuals without those people's consent. The rule was created, Twitter initially said, in a bid to prevent its platform from being abused to harass and intimidate people, particularly women, activists and minorities.
But right-wing groups and anti-mask activists have quickly determined that the new Twitter policy offers an opportunity to strike back at those who might draw attention to their real-world identities. And in a matter of days, they established a coordinated campaign to flood Twitter with complaints that left-wing activists, Jan. 6 investigators and journalists covering rallies have published their faces without consent in violation of the new rule.
In January, Samuel Braslow was covering an anti-mask protest at a Los Angeles mall for the Beverly Hills Courier, the 56-year-old local newspaper where he is a staff reporter. During the public event, Braslow tweeted a video of a standoff between anti-maskers and a mall official — a common practice in the age of digital reporting.
Braslow couldn't have known that, this week, someone would file a report about that same photojournalism and cause Twitter to lock down his account. The complaint led to Braslow being unable to tweet until he either successfully appealed the report or deleted the old tweets. He was stuck.
What happened to Braslow is increasingly playing out across the wider Twitterverse as the social media platform's new policy has become a battleground.
"Due to the new privacy policy at Twitter, things now unexpectedly work more in our favor as we can take down Antifa f****t doxxing pages more easily," read one recent message on the encrypted messaging app Telegram that was reviewed by CNN. The message, which has been viewed more than 19,000 times, lists dozens of Twitter accounts for supporters to target with claims of violations under the new privacy policy. Among the targeted is Bellingcat, the award-winning investigative journalism outfit.
After filing such reports, some individuals have publicly celebrated "weaponizing" Twitter's new rule. A pair of posts reviewed by CNN on the alternative social media site Gab boasted of making dozens of Twitter reports and urged allies to "stay on the offensive" against "antifa" and "their doxxing riot videos."
The rapidly unfolding campaign highlights how a tool intended to help protect vulnerable individuals has quickly evolved to help shield others from the scrutiny that might stem from their public actions.
As of Friday morning, several accounts on Twitter that track open-source images of right-wing extremists and participants in the Capitol riot had been hit by suspensions under the private media policy, potentially jeopardizing what has become a vital source of information for law enforcement and federal prosecutors investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, a Los Angeles videographer, told CNN his account was locked due to reports to Twitter involving videos he posted of anti-vaccine rallies and counter-protests in January.
The speed, scale and enthusiasm with which some groups have invoked the policy — along with numerous enforcement errors — have prompted some experts to conclude that Twitter's policy is backfiring.
Twitter declined to describe to CNN how reports were being reviewed and which ones may be being handled by humans rather than artificial intelligence.
David Kaye, a former United Nations special rapporteur on free expression, said Twitter should revert the policy and go back to the drawing board.
"From all appearances, Twitter's new 'privacy policy' is a failure, well-intentioned (perhaps) but abused & played," he tweeted. "They should be honest -- admit it's not ready for prime time."
Twitter's new policy pointedly doesn't take sides, saying that "everyone" can be harmed by the non-consensual sharing of images that may lead to emotional or physical harm.
The policy generally won't apply, Twitter said, to images of people at public events, like "large scale protests" or sporting events. Twitter added that the company will grant exceptions and allow images of people who may be "part of a newsworthy event due to public interest value."
But those aspects of Twitter's own policy appear not to have been followed in at least several cases.
"The videos in [my] post clearly represent newsworthy content, as they subsequently were picked up for broadcast by multiple affiliate stations and national outlets," said Braslow, who has previously appeared on CNN discussing his coverage of anti-vaccine rallies.
The battle over Twitter's policy is not just about Twitter, said Kristofer Goldsmith, a senior fellow for the Innovation Lab at Human Rights First who has been tweeting examples of the unfolding controversy. It also highlights concerns, he said, about organizing taking place on alternative social platforms, which may not receive as much scrutiny as Twitter.
"It's really important to view the current mass-reporting actions by the far right as just the latest salvo in an ongoing, concerted effort to memory-hole evidence of their crimes," said Chad Loder, an anti-fascist activist who said they use their Twitter account to document examples of far-right extremism and police misconduct.
On Thursday, Loder said they were trapped in an "endless cycle" of reports, account locks and appeals as one of their tweets was reported under the policy, restored by Twitter following an appeal, and then reported again on the same day, resulting in another temporary suspension linked to the same tweet. The tweet in question contained a photo of a person taking part in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, according to Loder.
Ken White, a Los Angeles-based attorney representing Loder who specializes in First Amendment law — and who may be better known to some as his Twitter persona, @Popehat — said Twitter has long struggled with having its reporting tools abused.
"This new policy is even more of the same," he told CNN. "Witness how it's being used to take down the very accounts that have been identifying and documenting January 6 wrongdoers. It's impossible they didn't know this would happen, and it's inexplicable they didn't plan for it."
