If you’re a Twitter user, you can now appeal an account suspension and your request will be judged by a new set of criteria for reinstatement, Twitter said on Wednesday.
In a tweet thread posted by @TwitterSafety, the company said it would reserve suspensions for “severe or ongoing, repeat violations of our policies” before banning an account. Rather than immediately suspending an account, it will now take less forceful actions such as “limiting the reach of policy-violating tweets or asking you to remove tweets” before you’re allowed to keep tweeting. Behavior that is considered a severe violation includes illegal content, inciting violence, privacy violations, and targeted harassment of users, among other actions.
Twitter already started reinstating previously suspended accounts late last year, permitting controversial accounts like those of former President Donald Trump and comedian Kathy Griffin back onto the platform. The company said it’ll continue to reinstate banned accounts that meet its new criteria over the next 30 days.
Twitter already had a feature allowing users to appeal suspensions and violations, but new management said previous policies for banning accounts were too harsh and took disproportionate disciplinary action for breaking Twitter rules.
A comment from the Twitter Safety account suggested that a number of appeals have been made under the new policy. “We appreciate your patience as we work through a high volume of these requests,” the account posted earlier Wednesday.
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
