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Twitter Inc., one of the largest microblogging sites, has clarified what they mean by abusive behavior that can prompt the company to remove the account of the user. They will also ban any "hateful content" aimed to promote violence against certain groups. The new changes were revealed by the company on their official blog on Tuesday. The rules attracted harsh criticism from the Twitter users that the company is not doing anything to discourage ISIS from using it for recruitment and propaganda. "As always, we embrace and encourage diverse opinions and beliefs, but we will continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into abuse," Megan Cristina, director of Trust and Safety, said in the blog, as reported by Business Insider.

According to the new rules, there is no mention about Islamic State or any such radical group by name. "You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability or disease," as per the revised rules. Previously, the company used standard warning to deter users from threatening or promoting "violence against others."

J.M. Berger, co-author of Brookings Institute "census" of March 2015 on use of Twitter by ISIS revealed that the militant group had operated as many as 46,000 accounts between September and December last year. Berger said that the new rule will encourage more users to aggressively report the accounts that break the rules. "The new definition is much clearer and takes some of the guesswork out of determining if a Tweet violates the rules," Berger said. Abraham Cooper, Rabbi heading the Digital Terrorism and Hate project at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in LA said that "terrorists and hate groups will leave" if Twitter enforces the revised rules, as reported by Reuters