Twitter is to stop people who have been suspended from the social media site creating new accounts as part of a new clampdown on abuse, the technology firm has said.

The social platform said it was taking steps to identify those people who had been previously removed from Twitter so that it could block future attempts they made to create a new profile, particularly those who had harassed or abused others.

A new safe search feature that filters out potentially explicit or sensitive content from search results is also being introduced. It will also remove tweets from blocked or muted accounts from search results.

Twitter's Ed Ho said the update was to help make the platform safer for users.

We stand for freedom of expression and people being able to see all sides of any topic

"Making Twitter a safer place is our primary focus," he said. "We stand for freedom of expression and people being able to see all sides of any topic."

"That's put in jeopardy when abuse and harassment stifle and silence those voices.

"We won't tolerate it and we're launching new efforts to stop it."

Twitter has previously been criticised for not doing enough to combat abusive behaviour by users, and last year updated its reporting tools so users could be more specific when reporting content they felt was inappropriate.

This new update will also include a feature that "collapses" less relevant replies to tweets.

Twitter will now identify replies to tweets it believes are potentially abusive or low-quality and will hide these from view as a user scrolls down the screen.

Only by tapping the new "show less relevant replies" will users be able to see that content.

"In the days and weeks ahead, we will continue to roll out product changes - some changes will be visible and some less so - and will update you on progress every step of the way," Mr Ho said.

"With every change, we'll learn, iterate, and continue to move at this speed until we've made a significant impact that people can feel."