Twitter Bans State Media’s War Prisoner Pics, Citing Geneva Convention

Twitter introduced Tuesday that it will ban content material that includes prisoners of warfare from authorities and state-affiliated media organizations amid the web info warfare between Russia and Ukraine taking part in out on its platform. The firm mentioned it social community would not amplify or suggest authorities accounts from Russia.

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of web site integrity, introduced the corporate’s coverage change in a tweet. He defined that the coverage, which is now in impact, would require authorities and state-affiliated media organizations to take away tweets with prisoner of warfare content material. In order “to protect essential reporting on the war,” the social media platform shall be making some exceptions in instances the place it determines there’s a compelling public curiosity or newsworthy content material on prisoners of warfare.

“Beginning today, we will require the removal of Tweets posted by government or state-affiliated media accounts which share media that depict prisoners of war in the context of Ukraine,” Roth wrote.

In a blog post, Twitter said that its new coverage was primarily based on Article 13 of the Geneva Convention of 1949. The article maintains that prisoners of warfare should be handled humanely always and protected against acts of violence or intimidation, insults, and public curiosity.

“We are guided by international humanitarian law, specifically Article 13 of Geneva Convention III (on protecting prisoners of war (PoWs) from any physical or psychological abuse or threat thereof, and encompasses a prohibition on humiliating them) and do not want Twitter to be used by state actors to infringe this law,” the corporate’s assertion learn.

According to Reuters, official Ukrainian authorities social media accounts have posted content material displaying prisoners of warfare in current weeks, together with movies of Russian prisoners of warfare answering questions or making telephone calls residence. In a nod to the platform’s new coverage, one among Ukraine’s hottest authorities accounts, @Ukraine, published a plain white picture with black textual content.

It contained the next message: “No photo from Bucha here. You saw all the photos. Act now.”

The authorities account references the tragedy in Bucha, a city exterior of Kyiv that was occupied by Russian forces, the place evidence indicates that Russian troopers brutally killed Ukrainian residents. The Washington Post reported that journalists on the bottom had seen our bodies mendacity within the streets of Bucha. Roughly 270 residents had been buried in two mass graves, the outlet said.

In addition to its ban on prisoner of warfare content material, Twitter may also cease amplifying and recommending Russian authorities accounts, Roth mentioned. The firm instructed Reuters that this coverage would have an effect on greater than 300 Russian accounts. Twitter is blocked in Russia.

“What does this mean? We won’t recommend these accounts, and we won’t amplify them across the Home Timeline, Explore, Search, and in other places on Twitter,” Roth mentioned on Twitter. “This measure drastically reduces the chance that people on Twitter see Tweets from these accounts unless they follow them.”

Gizmodo reached out to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok to ask whether or not they had comparable bans in place for prisoner of warfare content material. As of the publication of this text, solely YouTube had responded.

The firm pointed Gizmodo to a Twitter thread on its actions taken in the course of the warfare to this point, which embrace blocking entry to YouTube channels related to Russian state-funded media globally. YouTube mentioned it had eliminated greater than 1,000 channels and 15,000 movies for violating its insurance policies on hate speech, misinformation, graphic content material, and extra.