Twitter is really, really trying.
The company announced yesterday that it is rolling out even more features to help users filter out what they don’t want to see.
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This is yet another move to address the criticism that was lobbed at them last year as a result of the way it handled the US presidential election — which saw the rise of general Nazism and nationalist Pepe accounts on the platform.
“During the past few weeks alone, we’ve made a number of changes on this front including updating how you can report abusive Tweets, stopping the creation of new abusive accounts, implementing safer search results, collapsing abusive or low-quality Tweets, and reducing notifications from conversations started by people you’ve blocked or muted,” the post recalls.
And now they’re going even further.
As noted by a few users last month, Twitter has been putting some users in a “timeout,” meaning that for 12 hours only their followers can see their tweets.
>automatically get limited cause I said retard
I’m just considering leaving Twitter, fuck them pic.twitter.com/2NZpOPmlo2
—
Drybones ム (@Drybones5) February 14, 2017
Twitter notes in the post, however, that the technology is still new and there have been some cases in which users have been unnecessarily soft banned.
we are, working Hard to stop the Har Assment. on this Websight – “The Twitter” pic.twitter.com/NRniMRGxlw
— Fiora @ GDC
(@FioraAeterna) February 23, 2017
“Since these tools are new we will sometimes make mistakes, but know that we are actively working to improve and iterate on them everyday,” the post reads.
Along with the timeout is a more complicated muting feature that allows users to mute accounts with unverified emails and phone numbers as well as accounts who sport the egg profile picture.
Whereas muting before was only for notifications, it has been expanded to the home timeline.
“Now, you’ll be able to mute from your home timeline and you can decide how long this content is muted – one day, one week, one month, or indefinitely.”
Twitter has revealed numerous features and tweaks to reduce harassment and bullying on the platform
Their reporting feature has also been fleshed out, and users will now be able to follow their reports through the chain of command.
“You will be notified when we’ve received your report and informed if we take further action. This will all be visible in your notifications tab on our app,” the post asserts.
And not only is Twitter working hard to bring new safety features to its platform, it’s also listening to the criticisms the new features receive and rolling back those that prove unpopular.
We heard your feedback – this was a misstep. We’re rolling back the change and we’ll keep listening. https://t.co/9ozPS4XlVI
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 13, 2017
Twitter is trying really, really hard.
