In the wake of the U.S. Election, as Facebook and Google come under fire for the dissemination of fake “news” in their News Feed and search results, Twitter is tackling another area that’s been a flashpoint issue not only recently, but for years: the social media platform today is unveiling some major updates to its safety policy, aimed at helping users weed out abusive Twitter accounts and Tweets.

Abusive or hateful content — defined by Twitter as “specific conduct that targets people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease” — can now be reported to Twitter for removal not just by the targets of that abuse, but by bystanders. Read more…