Twitter pledges to remove Vine videos that violate content guidelines

January 28, 2013 | By Jason Ankeny

Less than a week after Twitter unveiled its new Vine video sharing application, users already are uploading sexually explicit clips, a trend that could incur the wrath of Twitter partner Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).

CNet reports that Vine searches for #porn, #sex, and other similar hashtags yields a handful of videos featuring male exhibitionism and other adult activity. Although Vine's terms of service do not expressly forbid explicit content, Twitter states "You are responsible for your use of the Services, for any Content you post to the Services, and for any consequences thereof. The Content you submit, post, or display will be able to be viewed by other users of the Services and through third-party services and websites. You should only provide Content that you are comfortable sharing with others under these Terms."

While Twitter has traditionally promised users a censorship-free environment (excluding instances of illegality), a spokesperson told CNet that users may flag Vine videos they find offensive, and if clips generate enough complaints, Twitter will add an adult content warning before the video begins. "Uploaded videos that are reported and determined to violate our guidelines will be removed from the site, and the user that posted the video may be terminated," Twitter said.

Twitter launched Vine Thursday via Apple's App Store. The app enables consumers to film and share videos running no longer than six seconds; users can film clips in a single take or pause the recording to string together montages of brief shots. Reports of explicit Vine content follow just days after Apple ousted photo-sharing startup 500px from its storefront, citing issues with objectionable content and potential child pornography violations.

Hours after Vine went live, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) blocked the app from accessing its network, effectively disabling an in-app feature designed to enable Vine users to connect to their Facebook friends. On Friday afternoon, Facebook clarified its platform policies, indicating that Vine ran afoul guidelines mandating that apps leveraging its Graph API and related APIs "must also enable people to easily share their experiences back with people on Facebook" and "may not use Facebook Platform to promote, or to export user data to, a product or service that replicates a core Facebook product or service without our permission."

Writing on the Facebook Developers Blog, Justin Osofsky, director of platform partnerships and operations, added "Our goal is to provide a platform that gives people an easy way to login to your apps, create personalized and social experiences, and easily share what they're doing in your apps with people on Facebook… For a much smaller number of apps that are using Facebook to either replicate our functionality or bootstrap their growth in a way that creates little value for people on Facebook, such as not providing users an easy way to share back to Facebook, we've had policies against this that we are further clarifying today."

For more:
- read this CNet article