Right after Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda Williams, was bullied off Twitter after her father’s seat, Twitter promised to do… something to improve its policies. Less than a week later, the social network has taken its first steps in that direction. Twitter will now removed images and videos of the deceased at the request of family members, according to a new addition on the company’s support page.
Twitter will now remove images or videos of the deceased at the request of family members, according to a tweet from the company’s spokesman Nu Wexler (as spotted by the Wall Street Journal). The move comes following bullying of Zelda Williams on the social networking site after the death of her father, actor Robin Williams, which led to her quitting Twitter. The company says that its latest move is “in order to respect the wishes of loved ones,” but also hedged that images will be removed only “in certain circumstances.” Immediate family members or other authorized individuals have to send an email to privacy@twitter.com to request the removal of media. However, Twitter says it has to take into account “public interest factors such as the newsworthiness of the content” and may not accede to every single request that comes in.