Harassment is a recurring problem across nearly everly online community, and Twitter seems to be more susceptible than most. Twitter Inc CEO Dick Costolo even admitted the microblogs failures to tackle harassment adequately in an email memo that was leaked in February.

“We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform, and we’ve sucked at it for years,” Costolo wrote. “It’s no secret, and the rest of the world talks about it every day. We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day.”

Twitter has continued searching for new ways to improve its anti-harassment capabilities, and now, the site has announced a few changes to its policies and tools that will help the microblog tackle internet trolls more effectively.

Previously, Twitter’s Violence Threats Policy prohibited only “direct, specific threats of violence,” but the site has now changed that language to also include “threats of violence against others or promot[ing] violence against others.”

“Our previous policy was unduly narrow and limited our ability to act on certain kinds of threatening behavior,” wrote Shreyas Doshi, director of product management at Twitter. “The updated language better describes the range of prohibited content and our intention to act when users step over the line into abuse.”

While this shift will help Twitter take on trolls, it may also help the site fight terrorist organizations such as ISIS, who have been known to use social media to communicate and recruit new members.

Twitter will now also be able to temporarily ban users who have violated its policies, giving the site a much needed tool to deal with one time violations or otherwise isolated incidents.

“This option gives us leverage in a variety of contexts, particularly where multiple users begin harassing a particular person or group of people,” Doshi wrote.

Users can now be banned for a certain length of time and may be forced to personally delete the offending tweets. They may also be required to confirm their phone number before unlocking their account, removing some degree of anonymity and giving Twitter the ability to track problem users who may switch accounts.

“While dedicating more resources toward better responding to abuse reports is necessary and even critical, an equally important priority for us is identifying and limiting the incentives that enable and even encourage some users to engage in abuse,” Doshi wrote. “We’ll be monitoring how these changes discourage abuse and how they help ensure the overall health of a platform that encourages everyone’s participation.”

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