Twitter rolls out new tool to curb online abuse, bullying

Washington / AFP

Twitter has begun rolling out a new weapon in the fight against harassment by “trolls” whose often anonymous vitriol can make the messaging service an unwelcoming place. The move comes as online social networks struggle to balance free speech with intimidation and aggression that make many fearful of speaking freely.
“The amount of abuse, bullying, and harassment we’ve seen across the internet has risen sharply over the past few years,” Twitter said in a statement. “These behaviors inhibit people from participating on Twitter, or anywhere.”
Twitter is expanding a “mute” feature that enables users to block accounts sending inappropriate messages. Twitter will let users eliminate, or mute, notifications based on keywords, phrases or entire conversations they are not interested in seeing, according to the San Francisco-based company.
“This is a feature we’ve heard many of you ask for, and we’re going to keep listening to make it better and more comprehensive over time,” it said. Twitter policy already prohibits hate spewed based on race, gender, religion, disability or sexual orientation.
BEARING WITNESS
Measures announced on Tuesday included providing a more direct way for people to report abusive behavior, even if they are a witness to it and not the target.
“This will improve our ability to process these reports, which helps reduce the burden on the person experiencing the abuse, and helps to strengthen a culture of collective support on Twitter,” the service said.
Twitter support staff have been retrained on its policies, including sessions to help understand comments in cultural and historic context, according to the company. Internal processes have been tuned to deal more effectively with reports of abusive behavior, with a goal of being faster and more transparent in handling situations, Twitter said.
Reasoning for the move included making Twitter a more welcoming platform, ideally ramping up the number of users and the amount of time they spend engaged on the platform. “Abusive conduct removes the chance to see and share all perspectives around an issue, which we believe is critical to moving us all forward,” Twitter said.