Twitter has come under fire on plenty of occasions as a result of its lackadaisical approach to handling abusive behavior that breaches its own terms of service, but now CEO Jack Dorsey has made a commitment to cracking down on this issue.
Over the next few days, Twitter is preparing to launch a three-pronged attack to put an end to abuse on the site, revealing a trio of updates that the company hopes will help reduce online harassment. According to the social network, chief among these updates will be the addition of a new “safe search” feature, which will remove tweets with words, phrases or images that the site has deemed inappropriate. Users will have the option to turn this feature off and on.
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Twitter will also be expanding this feature to conversations between users, with threads now containing a ‘less relevant replies’ button that hides “inappropriate” content from the viewer. This will theoretically ensure that users with more followers will be able to keep tweets with potentially abusive language or images hidden, putting a stumbling block in front of potential trolls. The company will also be looking to crack down on users who create new accounts despite already being banned from the site.
Image Credit: Twitter
Over the course of last year Twitter has been keen to state that it would be attempting to minimalize abusive behavior on the platform, after its users continued to routinely criticize the site for housing the large numbers of anonymous trolls that make up its user base. The company’s renewed focus upon tackling these trolls was largely as a result of its struggles on the stock market, with companies such as Disney reportedly pulling out of acquiring the social network as a result of the frequent stories surrounding its facilitation of online harassment.
It’s unclear how Twitter plans to implement safe search in a way that won’t block meaningful conversation, with the company yet to reveal how it will decide between appropriate and inappropriate content. However, at least it will provide a barrier for those who find themselves regular targets of abuse on the site, even if the majority of us will likely opt out of having our feeds censored.
(H/T Recode)
