Following its latest feature that allows Direct Messaging, Twitter has announced that they are about to issue new tools and updated policies that would ensure people’s safety on their social media platform.
Abuse and harassment have been the subject of many complaints that the company has dealt with so far, so they have finally taken matters into their hands and decided it was time to do everything in their power to put a stop to them.
So far, the company has had to face harsh criticism that it wasn’t taking complaints seriously and was at risk of losing a number of current users. While previous policies implied that the company would ban direct, specific messages made against other users, the new ones also apply to acts that instigate to violence against others.
Along with the new policies, a series of options will be available in order to have certain abusive accounts blocked for undetermined periods of time. These come in addition to older policies which requested users to delete certain posts and prompted them to add their phone numbers.
Earlier this year, Twitter introduced a feature that allowed people to report any content they considered harmful and any user they thought was posing as another person. The policies were renewed a month later, targeting the restriction of photo sharing without the person’s consent.
Moreover, the company stated that they are currently testing a tool that allows them to filter context and a variety of signals related to online abuse. For example, it might be able to scrutinize an account’s age or a message that resembles an abusive one.
Basically, this tool will immediately ban abuse before the user has a chance to realize it. Twitter director of product management Shreyas Doshy, said that the company’s main aim is that users feel safe on their platform and they want to make sure that people are not afraid to express themselves because of such threats. Therefore, they are working on a new platform that will create an atmosphere of security in the Twittersphere.
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