Twitter is preparing to launch a tagging system to help combat pornography that is shared on its service. The company has been called out in the past due to the widespread issue of inappropriate imagery appearing on the site, and is now making plans to implement a Microsoft-developed technology called PhotoDNA by the end of this year.

The PhotoDNA technology has become an industry standard since its introduction and Facebook became the first service to use it back in 2011. It uses a system that matches images being uploaded to a list of known inappropriate pictures and it’s even capable of recognizing images even if they’ve been altered by other users.

Twitter is implementing this new system independent of the UK’s recent announcement to block all pornography by default.

[via The Guardian, The Verge, image via Guerretto]