Jack Dorsey Says New Anti-Harassment Rules Are Under works Amid #WomenBoycottTwitter

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced Friday night the company will roll out major changes to tackle abusive and harassing speech on the social media site.

The announcement apparently came in response to the #WomenBoycottTwitter movement, which trended on the site and had the support of many high profile accounts that stood in solidarity with "victims of hate and harassment Twitter fails to support."

The trend was triggered after the micro-blogging site suspended the account of actor Rose McGowan, a vocal presence in the Harvey Weinstein scandal and who has accused the producer of raping her. Twitter users rallied behind McGowan and led a one-day boycott of the site Friday.

Heeding the zeitgeist, Dorsey in a series of tweets the social media giant would announce new rules in the next few weeks restricting “unwanted sexual advances, nonconsensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups” and any post that “glorifies violence.”

He also explained how Twitter has been working to counteract "voices being silenced on Twitter" for the past two years, by increasing their team size and updating their policies ever since they started prioritizing the concern in 2016.

The Twitter CEO claimed there has been much progress since the beginning of the year, but now have decided to take a more aggressive approach to the problem.

The announcement regarding these changes would come out in the next few weeks, he said.

Dorsey’s tweets are likely to be welcomed by the Hollywood actors and activists who boycotted Twitter on Friday in solidarity with McGowan, whose account was temporarily suspended Thursday for violating the site's terms and policies.

Twitter said McGowan's account was suspended as one of her tweets included a private phone number, which violated the company’s terms of services.

#WomenBoycottTwitter was started on Oct. 12 in response to McGowan’s account suspension. McGowan has been a vocal presence in the Weinstein scandal, using Twitter to express support for all the women who have spoken out and castigating those she felt were complicit in keeping the sordid affair under wraps, including the Weinstein Company board of directors and actors such as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Twitter responded to the same on their safety page saying, “Twitter is proud to empower and support the voices on our platform, especially those that speak truth to power. We stand with the brave women and men who use Twitter to share their stories, and will work hard every day to improve our processes to protect those voices."

However, even after these clarifications, Twitter prompted outrage and faced heat for suspending McGowan's account.

In the past too, the site has faced criticism for its inability to tackle abuse, especially against women. Sarah Kunst, the founder of sports media site "Proday"and former venture capitalist, on Oct. 3, 2017, also started tweeting about the site’s problems with bots and trolls.

Dorsey had very promptly replied to that saying, “No, that’s not true and never will be. We have a focused team and made this our top priority this year. And we’re making progress. We’re not where we want to be yet. But we’ll get there.”

Her tweet ended up starting a debate on Twitter with men and women calling out the platform for its failure to handle abusive accounts. A Twitter user by the name Alissa tweeted on Oct. 5, saying that although she had reported accounts who threatened her with rape, Twitter had failed to block or suspend them.