Enforcing our rules
With your help, Twitter can be a safe experience for everyone.
- Our rules
- Enforcement
Our rules
With your help, Twitter can be a safe experience for everyone.
As a global communication platform, Twitter is home to all kinds of people with distinctive voices, ideas, and perspectives.
It’s our responsibility to protect everyone’s voice as best as we can. When someone reports or flags an issue, that information is routed to one of several teams who are responsible for enforcing our policies. They review reports, and if there are Twitter Rules violations, they may take appropriate action. In some cases, such as spam, Twitter also uses automated signals to aid in our reviews and account removals.
Violent threats, abuse, or harassment
Because we want everyone to feel welcome on Twitter, we don’t tolerate content that threatens or promotes violence or terrorism. We also do not allow content that threatens or promotes violence or terrorism against a person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, or disability.
Self-harm and suicide
If you or someone you know is at risk of self-harm, please seek help as soon as possible: contact agencies specializing in crisis intervention and suicide prevention. If you see Tweets indicating that someone might harm himself or herself, you can let us know by filing a report.
Private information
We don’t allow Tweets that disclose private information such as financial account details, unlisted street addresses, or Social Security or other national identity numbers. We also prohibit content featuring intimate images that were taken or distributed without the subject’s consent.
Impersonation
Deceptively portraying or representing someone (impersonation) is a violation of the Twitter Rules. Such accounts may be permanently suspended.
Parody, commentary, and fan accounts
We allow parody, commentary, and fan accounts if the account profile is clearly marked as such, and it meets the requirements outlined in our policy. Accounts may be suspended if they do not meet these requirements, or if the account is engaging in abusive behavior.
Spam
You may not use Twitter to spam people. Because spam styles evolve quickly, so does our definition of what spamming is. Some behaviors we look for: following or unfollowing large numbers of people in a short period of time; being blocked by many; and frequent, unsolicited or duplicate replies or mentions.
If you’re in danger
If you feel you’re in physical danger or are seeing active abuse directed at you, here are three steps to take immediately.
First, contact local law enforcement right away.
Second, report the threat on Twitter. You can generate a printable report to share with law enforcement.
Finally, change your settings on Twitter:
Read more about our policies.
We’re here to help
If you think an account violates The Twitter Rules, file a report.
Learn how to report violations.
Enforcement
After you report
Our Terms of Service and the Twitter Rules outline the conduct we expect. When we get reports about potential violations, we investigate and take appropriate action. Anyone may report a violation they observe or experience. The number of reports we receive does not affect the outcome, but they do help us prioritize which ones we review first.
Read more
How we protect your account
If we see that your account shows unusual behavior, we may lock it temporarily. If so, we’ll send you a note telling you how to verify you’re the owner, so you can quickly get back to Tweeting.
How we investigate
When you submit a report, our global team is available 24/7 to review it. The action we take depends on the severity of the violation. We may ask for Tweets, links, and other evidence that might help us assess the situation. We may also suspend or lock the account temporarily or permanently.
How we handle abusers
When responding to abuse violations, there are several actions we can take. These include basic measures, such as requiring users to delete content or verify a phone number; we may lock more abusive accounts out of Twitter for a period of time; and in some cases we permanently suspend accounts.
We’re here to help
If you think an account violates The Twitter Rules, file a report.
Learn how to report violations.
Tweeting the latest safety tools, resources, and updates from @Twitter. For support, visit support.twitter.com