【21+ Archives】

1+ ArchivesTwitter purge has just begun and it looks like one of the first high-profile accounts to be wiped from the social media platform is that of Jayda Fransen, the controversial Britain First leader who President Donald Trump retweeted a few weeks ago.

On Monday morning, the anti-hate group Resisting Hate noted that the Twitter accounts of Fransen, Britain First, and Paul Golding, another Britain First leader, had been suspended as part of Twitter's new rules regarding behavior.

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Twitter declined to comment, though it has a regular policy of not commenting on specific accounts. A quick check of the Wayback Machine shows Fransen was active on Twitter as recently as Saturday.

This and the fact multiple Britain First accounts were suspended indicates this was part of the bigger purge rather than an isolated incident.

As Mashable's own Kerry Flynn reported earlier Monday, Twitter is now taking into account offline behavior when choosing who to suspend.

Now, Twitter will take into account user behavior "on and off the platform" as it relates to affiliation with violent organizations. 

In other words, context now matters on Twitter.

"This includes celebrating any violent act in a manner that may inspire others to replicate it or any violence where people were targeted because of their membership in a protected group. We will require offending Tweets to be removed and repeated violations will result in permanent suspension," a blog post on the new policies reads. 

A series of inflammatory (and misleading) anti-Muslim videos tweeted by Fransen were then retweeted by Trump on November 29, 2017. That quickly stirred up a wave of backlash, including from UK Prime Minister Theresa May, usually a Trump ally.

Other reports of controversial organizations caught up in the new wave of suspensions are starting to roll out.

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Whether Trump himself, who has threatened nuclear war and, as noted, retweeted Britain First rhetoric, along with a slew of other fun things, will be considered in violation of the new rules remains to be seen.