SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 17 (UPI) — Social media giant Twitter has taken a major step against hate speech, developing tools to guard against online abuse and suspending the accounts of prominent alt-right figures — an issue that’s come to light recently with the election of Donald Trump to the White House.
On Tuesday, the company announced new messaging tools for its website intended to reduce hate speech and online bullying.
“The amount of abuse, bullying, and harassment we’ve seen across the Internet has risen sharply over the past few years,” it said in a blog post.
One of the improved tools is an expansion of its “mute” feature, which “silences” tweets from accounts users don’t want to see.
Also Tuesday, Twitter suspended the accounts of several people associated with the alt-right movement, which is often associated with white supremacy, homophobia and anti-Semitism, USA Today reported.
The alt-right focus was broadened in recent weeks by its vast support for GOP candidate Donald Trump and by last weekend’s appointment of Steve Bannon as Trump’s chief White House strategist and senior counsel. Bannon is the former head of Breitbart News, which is labeled by critics as a voice for the alt-right movement in mainstream media.
Bannon’s appointment to the advisory post has generated substantial international outcry, with some Democrats vigorously calling for his removal from the role.
Among those suspended by Twitter was Richard Spencer, who operates the alt-right think tank National Policy Institute — which calls itself “an independent organization dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States.”
Twitter, which has more than 300 million active monthly users, also suspended the institute’s official account.
“I am alive, physically. But digitally speaking, there has been execution squads across the alt-right,” Spencer said in response on a video posted to YouTube. “It is corporate Stalinism. There is a great purge going on and they are purging people on the basis of their views.”
Twitter makes clear in its terms of use that it does not tolerate hate speech and online abuse. Violation of the terms may result in account suspension, the policy states.
“The Twitter Rules prohibit targeted abuse and harassment, and we will suspend accounts that violate this policy,” the company said in a statement.
Others associated with the alt-right who had accounts suspended are Paul Town, Pax Dickinson, Ricky Vaughn and John Rivers.
