Social media companies, including Twitter, are getting a lot of heat for abuse and hate speech pervading their platforms.
Twitter, in a move to suppress abuse and hate speech, announced the implementation of measures to put a stop to online abuse. Twitter outlined this in a blog post, citing the amount of abuse, bullying, and harassment has risen significantly in recent years that it prevents people from engaging on Twitter or anywhere.
Engagement in Twitter happens instantaneously in real-time, which puts into perspective why Twitter is having a difficult time in curbing abusive speech conduct. In an effort to correct this, the company said they are taking a step back to reset and take on a new approach to address abuse and hate where it matters most and at the most expedient time.
In the same publication, Twitter announced that the company will focus on three avenues to tackle abuse and hate speech: controls, reporting and enforcement.
For control, Twitter is expanding the "mute" feature that not only blocks Tweets from accounts the user does not want to see but also it can now mute keywords, phrases, and even entire conversations. For reporting, Twitter is providing a more direct way to report incidents of hate speech. Twitter hopes that it not only alleviates the burden of those experiencing abuse, but it can also improve Twitter's response to processing these reports.
As for enforcement, Twitter says they have re-trained their support teams on company policies including those touching on the cultural and historical context of what can be considered as hateful conduct. Their goal is in line with improving internal mechanisms that deal with reported speech abuse issues effectively in a fast and transparent process.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, speaking to investors said: "No one deserves to be a target of abuse on Twitter." He adds that they haven't been adequate in ensuring these cases and that they needed to do better, according to c|net.
However, even with the new features implemented, Twitter doesn't expect conducts of hate and abuse to suddenly vanish from Twitter. Dorsey maintains the company is not about censoring speech, but he also maintains "Abuse is not a civil discourse."
