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Abuse has always been an issue on Twitter, with the platform’s toxicity a source of constant debate and accusation, since its inception.
But Twitter worked to address it. After years of seemingly limited action, over the past 12 months, Twitter has expanded a range of new control options, including response checks to limit unwelcome commenters, alerts on potentially harmful and / or offensive answers, en Safety mode what anotify users when their tweets get negative attention.
Collectively, these new features could have a big impact – and Twitter hasn’t been done yet. This week, Twitter unveiled some more new controls that can help users avoid negative interactions and the mental tension that accompanies them when your tweets become the focus of abuse.
First, Twitter develops new ‘Filter’ and ‘restrict’ options, known as Twitter notes, would be designed to help users keep potentially harmful content – and the people who create it – out of their responses.
As you can see here, the new option would allow you to automatically filter out replies that may contain offensive comments, or from users who repeatedly tweet at you that you never talk to. You can also block the same accounts to reply to your tweets in the future.
But more importantly, the filter option would also mean that any replies you choose to hide would also not be visible to anyone else in the app, other than the person who tweeted it, which is similar to the ‘Hide’ option ‘on Facebook to comment.
This is a significant change in approach. So far, Twitter has allowed users to hide content from their own view in the app, but others can still see it. The filter control increases the individual users’ ability to completely hide such comments – which is logical, because they are replies to your tweets. But you can also imagine that it could be abused by politicians or brands that want to close negative mentions.
This is probably a more important consideration on Twitter, where the real-time nature of the app invites response and interaction, and in some cases challenges to what people are saying, especially about current or newsworthy issues. If people can then close the discussion, it could have its own possible consequences – but then the original tweet would still be there as a reference, and users would theoretically still be able to quote the tweet they wanted.
And with response controls already in place in the app, it’s probably not a big deal, and it could very well enable users to get rid of the trolls and crawlers lurking in their responses, resulting in overall involvement in the app can improve.
In addition, Twitter is also developing a new ‘Heads Up’ Warning Guide, which will warn users about potentially divisive comment sections before diving.
This can prevent you from ending up in a swamp of toxicity and unknowingly becoming a focal point for abuse. As you can see on the second screenshot, the call will also appeal to users to be more considerate in their tweeting process.
I do not suspect that it will have a major impact on user behavior, but it may help to at least pay more attention to the process.
Twitter also develops new ‘Word filters‘, which is an extension of the existing Keyword Blocking Tools, and rely on Twitter’s automated tracking systems to filter out potentially offensive comments.
As you can see here, the option will include separate switches to automatically filter out hate speech, spam and swearing, based on Twitter’s system tracking, which provides another way to limit unwanted exposure in the app.
These seem to be useful additions, and although there are always concerns that people will use such tools essentially as blinds to block everything they do not want to deal with, which can limit useful conversations and important perspectives, if it gives people better in- app experience, why would they not be able to do this?
The ideal would, of course, be an enlightened intelligent debate on all matters, where people remain civic and respectful at all times. But it’s Twitter, and it’s never going to happen. As such, providing more control options may be the best way forward, and it’s good to see how Twitter is taking more steps to address these key elements.
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