When Twitter could take credit for revolutionary political movements like the Arab Spring, it was easy for the company's executives to joke about their liberal stance on free speech. (Twitter, they said, was "the free speech wing of the free speech party.") But things are a bit more complicated now, as Twitter increasingly plays host to bullies, harassers, Nazis, propaganda-spreading bots, ISIS recruiters, and threats of nuclear war. Twitter's toxic content problem isn't just bad for humanity---it's bad for business, because it drives people away from the platform.

In early 2016 the company began altering its stance on free speech, forming a Trust and Safety Council made up of safety groups, advocates, and researchers to help it address the problem. But critics are not satisfied with the results. Reports have outlined many instances of the company's failure to punish harassers; these shortcomings make Twitter's recent missteps all the more frustrating to critics. Last week the company disabled features of actor Rose McGowan's account at a crucial moment amid the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal. Groups of women boycotted the site for a day in protest. Twitter's typical response to complaints about hate and harassment is to affirm its commitment to transparency. But even that is becoming a punch line.

On Friday CEO Jack Dorsey announced plans to act more aggressively. Twitter will introduce new rules around unwanted sexual advances, nonconsensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorify violence, he tweeted. To add a sense of urgency, the company is holding daily meetings on the issue.

After Tuesday's meeting, Twitter's head of safety policy emailed members of its Trust and Safety Council with detailed plans on its new rules, which Twitter plans to implement in the coming weeks.

The new plans stop short of sweeping measures, such as banning pornography or specific groups like Nazis. Rather, they offer expanded features like allowing observers of unwanted sexual advances---as well as victims---to report them, and expanded definitions, such as including "creep shots" and hidden camera content under the definition of "nonconsensual nudity." The company also plans to hide hate symbols behind a "sensitive image" warning, though it has not yet defined what qualifies as a hate symbol. Twitter also says it will take unspecified enforcement actions against "organizations that use/have historically used violence as a means to advance their cause."

It's not the first time Twitter has targeted violent groups; its rules already prohibit threatening or promoting terrorism. But the new rules show the company is open to expanding that to any group promoting violence. The company's new steps also show how Twitter, like Facebook and other digital-media platforms that host user-generated content, struggle with how much editorial oversight and human judgment to introduce.