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Twitter has vowed to tackle online abuse with a promise to ban trolls who bombard other users with violent threats.

It has released a new set of guidelines designed to make the network less anti-social.

Shreyas Doshi, director of product management, said: "We believe that users must feel safe on Twitter in order to fully express themselves and we need to ensure that voices are not silenced because people are afraid to speak up.

"To that end, we are today announcing our latest product and policy updates that will help us in continuing to develop a platform on which users can safely engage with the world at large."

Doshi announced a number of policy changes designed to make the Twittersphere a happier place.

Firstly, it has banned "threats of violence against others or promoting violence against others."

This toughens up on a previous policy which only prohibited "direct, specific" threats to harm other people, which Doshi described as "unduly narrow".

The social network now has the ability to lock abusive accounts for a period of time.

"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.

Twitter will also begin identifying abusive tweets and then making sure they don't reach people who might be threatened by them - even if the tweet is popular or written by a well-known person.

A dedicated safety team will keep an eye on new accounts, to make sure they aren't started up with the specific intention of throwing out abuse.

This will be useful in dealing with extremists including ISIS supporters, who are often banned and simply reappear with new accounts.