Twitter suspends accounts of prominent White supremacists to curb abuse

Social networking giant Twitter on Wednesday suspended the accounts of all prominent White supremacists associated with the alt-right movement to check abuse and harassment on the site.

The people linked with the alt-right movement whose accounts have been suspended include Richard Spencer, Pax Dickinson, John Rivers and Ricky Vaughn, USA Today reported. The movement is believed to be headed by Spencer, and unites a group of people who oppose multiculturalism and immigrants, and think they are a threat to White identity.

White Supremacists and the alt-right movement supports the United States President-elect Donald Trump, who spoke strongly against immigrants and minorities in America during his election campaign. According to reports, the alt-right movement is on the rise since his election win. Trump on Monday also appointed Stephen Bannon as his chief Strategist. Bannon runs Breitbart news website, which is a favourite for White-supremacists and sends out anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and racist messages.

"Twitter rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies," a Twitter spokesperson in a statement said.

Twitter also suspended the accounts of National Policy Institute and Radix Journal, a magazine run by Spencer. He is also the president of the National Policy Institute.

Twitter on Wednesday came under critical scanner after a pro-white advertisement with Nazi undertones appeared on the networking site. The advert was removed soon after many users complained about it. The advertisement had slipped through the website's filtering system for self-serve advertising.

Reports state that ever since Trump's election win, abuse of social media has become more intensified and several Twitter users have complained about the hate rhetoric on the site. Following the complaints, Twitter on Tuesday introduced an anti-harassment keyword filtering tool which allows people to mute particular words like foul language. The tool also allows people to block conversations they deem inappropriate.