Twitter may ban white supremacists from platform

Micro-blogging site Twitter is conducting an in-house research to decide whether racism-promoting white supremacists should stay on its platform.

With 275 million global users, Twitter aims to work specifically on white nationalism and supremacy to understand and tackle its drivers.

The app has had a troubled history with white supremacists on its platform but it wonders if open conversation would be more effective than bans.

"Counter-speech and conversation are a force for good and they can act as a basis for de-radicalisation and we've seen that happen on other platforms, anecdotally.

"So one of the things we're working with academics on is some research here to confirm that this is the case," Vice News quoted Vijaya Gadde, Head of trust and safety, legal and public policy, Twitter as saying on Wednesday.

The micro-blogging site is working with unnamed external researchers who are under non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

According to Gadde, the research would help the company answer questions like - "Is it the right approach to de-platform these individuals? Is the right approach is to try and engage with these individuals? How should we be thinking about this? What actually works?" the report said.

Earlier in April, Gadde met US President Donald Trump along with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to discuss the "health of the public conversation" on the platform.