Twitter mistakenly suspended users after extremists abused its private image policy

If you were worried people might abuse Twitter's new policy banning non-consensual image sharing, your fears were well-founded. The social network toldThe Washington Post it suspended the accounts of 12 journalists and anti-extremism researchers by mistake after far-right activists and white supremacists sent a "coordinated and malicious" flurry of bogus reports attempting to silence critics. It wasn't clear how many reports had been sent beyond a "significant amount."

The company said it was already reversing bans and had begun an internal review to make sure the policy was used "as intended." More data on the volume of false accusations would come later. Some of the extremists' targets were still banned as of the Post's story.