Twitter has quietly started blocking certain words on the platform’s built-in search engine.

Words such as ‘porn’, ‘nsfw’, ‘sex’ and similar terms will no longer appear when searched under ‘Latest’ tab – but, racial slurs and the word ‘jihad’ have not been removed.

Although Twitter has blocked these words from being found in the Latest tab, users can still find some of the 'forbidden' terms by searching in the 'Top' tab.

Twitter has quietly started blocking certain words on the platform’s built-in search engine. Words such as ‘porn’, ‘nsfw’, ‘sex’ and similar terms will no longer appear when searched under ‘Latest’ tab

WHAT DOES TWITTER ALLOW? Twitter says it 'prohibits the promotion of hate content, sensitive topics, and violence globally.' But this policy does not apply to news and information that calls attention to hate, sensitive topics, or violence, but does not advocate for it. And it also doesn't apply to commentary about products, services, companies, or brands. The site has been criticized for failing to tackle some high-profile cases. For instance, it has allowed Donald Trump to use it as a platform for what many believe is hate speech. The filter also doesn't appear to be hugely effective yet. MailOnline investigated some of the words not blocked by Twitter found in recent tweets and account names and bios. Racial slurs, homophobic language, 'ablest' slurs, and sexist language have all slipped through Twitter's new censorship feature. These included p**fter, m**g, p**y, p**sy and f**got. Advertisement

The latest development is part of Twitter’s ongoing effort to combat harassment and was first reported by HeatStreet.

But for a firm that has called itself the ‘free speech wing of the free speech party’, Twitter has not given any explanation for the words that have or have not been filtered from its search engine.

What has many users questioning the move is that Twitter has prohibited terms such as ‘kink’ and ‘BDSM’, but has failed to remove others that bring more dangerous behavior to the platform – racial slurs and terms like ‘jihad’.

If users attempt to search a word that has been filtered they will be presented with an alert that reads, 'nothing came up from that search, which is a little weird'.

'Maybe check what you searched and try again.'

HeatStreet also noted that the latest words to be exiled from the Latest search tab were ‘marijuana’ and ‘cannabis’, which appeared to have been censored over the weekend.

But tweeters banded together and campaigned against the words being removed – prompting Twitter to uncensor the terms.

Although the social media site has failed to rid the platform of certain words, the firm has stepped up efforts to rid its social network of posts from users advocating political or religious violence, and was increasingly using software to find them rather than relying on reports from users or governments.

U.S. and European governments have been pressuring social media companies including Twitter, Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google to fight harder against online radicalization, particularly by Islamist groups that advocate violent activity.

As part of its semiannual 'transparency report,' Twitter said it suspended some 377,000 accounts during the final six months of 2016 for 'violations related to promotion of terrorism,' a rate of about 63,000 a month.

What has many users question the move is that Twitter has prohibited terms such as ‘kink’ and ‘BDSM’, but has failed to remove others that bring more dangerous behavior to the platform – racial slurs and terms like ‘jihad’

That is up from about 24,000 a month for a comparable period a year ago.

For the first time, Twitter noted how many government requests the company receives to take down messages posted by journalists and news organizations.

The data showed Turkey was by far the most active country in seeking takedown of media reports.

Twitter said it wanted to 'shine a brighter light' on the requests as a threat to press freedom.

Of the accounts recently suspended for advocating political or religious violence, 74 percent were identified by 'internal, proprietary spam-fighting tools,' rather than by users or authorities, Twitter said.

Less than 2 percent were suspended after authorities complained that a user was violating Twitter's terms of service, it said.

HOW TWITTER'S SMART SOFTWARE WORKS Twitter's algorithms will identify accounts as potentially engaging in abusive behavior. The firm will limit the functionality of accounts flagged by its technology as abusive for an unspecified amount of time. This could include allowing only followers to see that user's tweets. The social media giant is also expanding its mute feature that it rolled out in November that lets users mute keywords and phrases in their notifications. Now, users also have the ability to mute specific words and even usernames from their timeline A new harrasment feature lets users mute ‘eggs’, which are accounts that use the default Twitter egg as their profile picture. These eggs suggests that the user is more than likely fake or trying to hide something The accounts will then be reviewed for potential abuse. They traditionally relied on users to report accounts that should be reviewed for possible violation. Twitter will still review user reports. Currently, accounts are deleted or suspended when marked as abusive. Advertisement

By contrast, Twitter said in a report last year that spam-fighting tools had helped identify only about one-third of the accounts it had suspended for those reasons.

During the final six months of 2016, Twitter said, the company received 88 court orders and other legal requests from around the world directing it to remove content posted by verified journalists and news outlets.

Some 77 of them were from Turkey.

Turkey detained tens of thousands of people including scores of journalists after a failed coup in July.

HeatStreet also noted that the latest words to be exiled from the Latest search tab were ‘marijuana’ and ‘cannabis’, which appeared to have been censored over the weekend. But tweeters banned together and campaigned against the words being removed – prompting Twitter to uncensor the terms

TWITTER'S NEW WARNING SYSTEM Twitter is ramping up its campaign against abusive users and sensitive material on its website. It now presents a warning when users click on a profile that 'may include sensitive content'. The warning greys out the profile's tweets, bio and profile picture, but gives users the option to view the profile if they wish. Twitter is ramping up its campaign against abusive users and sensitive material on its website. The social media firm now presents a warning when users click on a profile that 'may include sensitive content' (screenshot pictured) Twitter used to only mark individual tweets with a sensitivity warning, but has now expanded this to censor whole profiles unless users agree to view them. Users must then click a button to confirm that they want to see the profile. But profiles that are censored have not been informed by Twitter. The move is part of Twitter's recent campaign to curtail abusive and offensive behaviour on their website. Advertisement

The crackdown by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has for years tried to stamp out what he sees as illegal online activity, has strained relations with NATO allies and raised alarms among civil liberties advocates.

Twitter did not take action in response to the 'great majority' of the requests, with exceptions in Turkey and Germany, the social network said.

It also said it filed legal objections whenever possible, but that in Turkey, 'disappointingly, none of our objections prevailed.'

In Turkey, Twitter said it withheld 15 tweets and 14 accounts in response to court orders. Examples included gory images after militant attacks, the company said.

In Germany, Twitter said it took down one Tweet posted by a soccer magazine 'for violating an individual's personal rights in response to a court order.'

Twitter said it was providing copies of the underlying court orders to Lumen, a research project affiliated with Harvard University that collects and studies cease and desist letters and other court orders about online content.