Twitter will allow users to appeal against an account suspension starting this month, with the company proactively reinstating previously banned accounts.
Twitter, which was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk in October, confirmed late last year that it had identified policies where permanent suspension “was a disproportionate action for breaking Twitter rules”.
“Going forward, we will take less severe actions, such as limiting the reach of policy-violating Tweets or asking you to remove Tweets before you can continue using your account,” the company said.
“Account suspension will be reserved for severe or ongoing, repeat violations of our policies.”
Twitter confirmed that it did not reinstate accounts that engaged in illegal activity, threats of harm or violence, large-scale spam and platform manipulation, or where there was no recent appeal to have the account reinstated.
The account of former US president Donald Trump was reinstated in November after a majority of respondents in a poll run by MrMusk said they wanted him back on the platform.
He was banned for allegedly inciting violence after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Despite the lifting of his ban, he hasn't tweeted since January 8, 2021.
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Elon Musk over the years — in pictures
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Among the thousands of layoffs at Twitter since Mr Musk took ownership have reportedly been the social network’s misinformation policy and moderation team.
The move led to concerns of an increase in abuse and hate speech on Twitter, although Mr Musk claimed in November that “hate speech impressions” had declined dramatically.
Twitter lost at least half of its major advertisers in the weeks after Mr Musk became its chief executive, representing a loss of about $750 million, a report by non-profit company Media Matters found.
Mr Musk had previously claimed that the company was losing $4 million a day. It has since introduced a paid subscription service and is moving forward with plans to introduce a payments feature on its platform to raise new revenue.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the company's development team tweeted that it would no longer support free access to Twitter API, both versions v2 and v1.1.
It said a paid basic tier would be available instead.
“Twitter data [sets] are among the world’s most powerful,” it said. “We’re committed to enabling fast and comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us. We’ll be back with more details on what you can expect next week.”
