Page 8 - UTILITIES

Tuesday 19 december 2017 TECHNOLOGY
A24

Twitter suspends white nationalists under new rules

By ALEXANDRA OLSON ues to work out internal violence against civilians
Associated Press monitoring tools and it is to further their causes.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter revamping the appeals While more content is
suspended the accounts process for banned or banned, the company has
of well-known white na- suspended accounts. But provided more leeway for
tionalists Monday, moving Twitter will begin accept- itself after it was criticized
swiftly after putting into ing reports from users. for strict rules that resulted
place new rules on what it Users can report profiles, in account suspensions.
sees as abusive content. or users, that they consider There was a backlash
The account of far-right to be in violation of Twit- against Twitter after it sus-
group Britain First, a small ter policy. Previously, users pending the account of
group that regularly posts could only report individual actress Rose McGowan
inflammatory videos pur- posts they deemed offen- who opened a public
porting to show Muslims sive. campaign over sexual ha-
engaged in acts of vio- Now being targeted are rassment and abuse, spe-
lence, was among the first “logos, symbols, or images cifically naming Hollywood
to go dark. This Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016, photo shows a Twitter sign whose purpose is to pro- mogul Harvey Weinstein.
outside of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco.
The individual accounts of Associated Press mote hostility and malice Twitter eventually reinstat-
two of its leaders, Jayda against others based on ed McGowan’s account
Fransen and Paul Golding, view the post. more than a hundred fol- their race, religion, disabil- and said that it had been
were also suspended. Twitter is also prohibiting us- lowers in the past 24 hours ity, sexual orientation, or suspended because of a
President Donald Trump ers from abusing or threat- and noted that he didn’t ethnicity/national origin.” tweet that violated its rules
caused a stir last month ening others through their “see any systematic meth- There is no specific list, on privacy.
when he retweeted a post profiles or usernames. od to the #TwitterPurge.” however, of banned sym- “In our efforts to be more
by Fransen, drawing criti- The account for American There appeared to be bols or images. aggressive here, we may
cism from British Prime Min- Renaissance, a white na- some inconsistencies in the Rather, the company will make some mistakes and
ister Theresa May. Fransen tionalist online magazine enforcement. review complaints individ- are working on a robust
and Golding were arrested run by Jared Taylor, was Still on Twitter was David ually to consider the con- appeals process,” Twitter
in Belfast last week for al- among those suspended. Duke, with some of his posts text of the post or profile, said in its blog post.
legedly stirring up hatred. The magazine responded hidden behind the “sensi- including cultural and po- Twitter relies in large part
The guidelines, announced to the Twitter ban with the tive material” warning. litical considerations. on user reports to identify
a month ago and put into terse message, “this isn’t However, Twitter allowed It is also broadening exist- problematic accounts and
force this week, address goodbye” and referred him to keep the message ing policies intended to re- content, but the company
hateful images or symbols, readers to a chat site fre- “It’s Ok To Be White” as duce threatening content, said it is developing “inter-
including those attached quented by white nation- his header, even though to include imagery that nal tools” to bolster its abil-
to user profiles. alists. the same phrase was hid- glorifies or celebrates vio- ity to police content.
Monitors at the company Brad Griffin, who blogs un- den by the warning on his lent acts. Twitter also seeks to im-
will weigh hateful imag- der the name Hunter Wal- pinned tweet. That content will be re- prove communications
ery in the same way they lace on the website Oc- Twitter said it would not moved and repeat offend- with users about the deci-
do graphic violence and cidental Dissent, said in comment on individual ac- ers will be banned. Begin- sions it makes.
adult content. blog post that he was also counts. ning Monday, the com- That includes telling those
If a user wants to post sym- suspended, along with Mi- While the new guidelines pany will ban accounts who have been suspend-
bols or images that might chael Hill of the Traditional- are now in play, the social affiliated with “organiza- ed which rules they had
be considered hateful, the ist Workers Party and oth- media company contin- tions that use or promote violated.q
post must be marked “sen- ers.
sitive media.” The white nationalist Rich- Toyota planning 10 purely electric
Other users would then see ard Spencer, whose ac-
a warning that would allow count was not suspended,
them to decide whether to tweeted that he had lost vehicles by 2020s

By YURI KAGEYAMA aging electric vehicles mote a Japanese part-
AP Business Writer with subsidies and other nership. Advances in bat-
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota policies, and is expected tery technology are vital
plans to offer more than to drive massive growth in for the success of EVs. A
10 purely electric vehicle that technology. Terashi major shift toward their
models in its lineup by says Toyota’s EVs will also use would require more
the early 2020s, marking later be offered in Japan, use and recycling of the
the Japanese automak- India, the U.S. and Europe. rare and expensive ma-
er’s commitment to that The company says that by terials used in batteries,
growing technology sec- about 2025, every model such as lithium. Toyota an-
tor. Toyota Motor Corp. it sells will have some kind nounced other goals on
now offers no purely of “electrified” version, green vehicles. By about
electric vehicles, al- such as hybrid, electric or 2030, it hopes to sell 5.5
though it leads in hybrid fuel-cell. Last week, Toyota million electrified vehicles
models, which switch be- announced it will set up a a year. Toyota sells about
tween an electric motor joint auto battery business 10 million vehicles glob-
and a gas engine. with Japanese electron- ally a year. The company
Executive Vice President ics maker Panasonic Corp. said it will invest 1.5 trillion
Shigeki Terashi said Mon- Terashi stressed the deal yen ($13 billion) to real-
day that Toyota’s EVs will with Panasonic is “a crucial ize its 2030 goal, more
be first offered in China, piece” in Toyota’s strategy, than half of it on making
a nation that’s encour- and that it wanted to pro- batteries.q