Twitter has suspended several accounts belonging to alt-right members and beefed up measures for users to block hate speech. According to Fortune:
The social media company on Tuesday removed the accounts of prominent alt-right leader Richard Spencer, his think tank and online magazine, as well as other movement members like Paul Town, Pax Dickinson, Ricky Vaughn, and John Rivers, according to USA Today.
Earlier that day, the social media platform introduced measures that allow users to mute certain words in their notifications in an effort to curb abuse and hate speech.[...]
Twitter declined to comment on the suspensions … "We don't comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons," the company said in an emailed comment.”
Twitter was the platform of choice for the campaign of President-elect Donald Trumpand the alt-right political movement that embraced him. The alt-right used social media to spread its cause of white supremacy, operating largely unchecked by social media giants Twitter and Facebook.
According to USA Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center—long known for its anti-racist organizing—may have had a hand in the move:
Heidi Beirich, spokeswoman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, told USA TODAY that the center had asked Twitter to remove more than 100 accounts of white supremacists who violated Twitter's terms of service.
Beirich said that Twitter “had done nothing,” but may have been referring to past attempts at cracking down on white racist hate speech.