Twitter will now publicly flag offensive tweets

They will be replaced with a post reading "This tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules"

Public exposure certainly helps deter unwanted behaviour. Twitter is taking this pretty seriously after cracking down on users who violate the social media giant’s terms of service.

On Wednesday, the company announced that any such tweets will be replaced with a post reading "This tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules."



It will remain up for 14 days after the user deletes the offending Tweet. Anyone visiting the profile would know that the user posted a message that someone else successfully reported.



Tweets will also look a bit different for people who reported a tweet. If they come across a tweet they've previously reported, in place of the offending tweet, users will see a warning that would say "You reported this tweet."



The company already has a restriction in place that requires users to delete a tweet that has violated Twitter's terms of service before being able to tweet again. This new initiative just makes that action more visible to everyone.



It's a simple example of how public shaming can alter unwanted behaviour and the social media giant is wasting no time in putting the technique to good use.