"In order to respect the wishes of loved ones, Twitter will remove imagery of deceased individuals in certain circumstances," according to a statement tweeted by Twitter spokesman Nu Wexler on Tuesday.
Immediate family members and other authorized individuals may request the removal of images or videos of deceased individuals, from when critical injury occurs to the moments before or after death, the statement on Twitter's support site said.
However, the micro-messaging service said it will consider public interest factors such as the newsworthiness of the content while reviewing such media removal requests and may not be able to honour every request. As CNET notes, the move by Twitter comes a week after Zelda Williams, the daughter of recently-deceased Robin Williams, publicly quit Twitter after receiving 'gruesome Photoshopped images of her late father.'
Del Harvey, Twitter's vice president of trust and safety, had responded to the Williams issue in a statement to the Washington Post last week, saying, "We will not tolerate abuse of this nature on Twitter. We have suspended a number of accounts related to this issue for violating our rules and we are in the process of evaluating how we can further improve our policies to better handle tragic situations like this one. This includes expanding our policies regarding self-harm and private information, and improving support for family members of deceased users."
Facebook also allows verified immediate family members to request the removal of a deceased person's Facebook account. Back in February, Facebook in a post titled 'Remembering our loved ones' announced changes to the manner in which it preserves its users' legacies.
Written with inputs from Reuters
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