The social media giant said it has begun identifying people who have been banned for abusive behaviour and it will stop them from creating new accounts.

In July, Twitter banned Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor of the right-wing news site Breitbart News, for “participating in or inciting targeted abuse of individuals.”

Twitter subsequently suspended the accounts of other prominent figureheads of the “alt-right” fringe movement, an amorphous mix of racism, white nationalism, xenophobia and anti-feminism.

Balancing its reputation as a free speech haven has come into conflict with efforts to protect users.

Other internet companies have taken recent steps to curb abusive behaviour and ban users who violate rules against promoting hate.

Hate speech and promoting violence have long been barred under the terms of service of internet and social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook.

In August, Twitter said it had suspended some 360,000 accounts over the previous year for violating its policies banning the promotion of terrorism and violent extremism.

Jennifer Grygiel, an assistant professor of communications at Syracuse University, said Twitter still relies too heavily on its users to root out and report abusive material.

“I have a simple fix: Just hire a lot more humans,” Grygiel said.

– AP