Twitter is looking at adding new features that could help users who are facing abusive situations on its platform as a result of unwanted attention pile-ons, such as when a tweet goes viral for a reason they didn\u2019t expect and a full firehose of counter tweets get blasted their way.<\/p>\n
Racist abuse also remains a major problem on Twitter\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n
The social media giant says it\u2019s toying with providing users with more controls over the @mention feature to help people \u201ccontrol unwanted attention\u201d as privacy engineer, Dominic Camozzi, puts it.<\/p>\n
The issue is that Twitter\u2019s notification system will alert a user when they\u2019ve been directly tagged in a tweet \u2014 drawing their attention to the contents. That\u2019s great if the tweet is nice or interesting. But if the contents is abusive it\u2019s a shortcut to scale hateful cyberbullying.<\/p>\n
Twitter is badged these latest anti-abuse ideas as \u201cearly concepts\u201d \u2014 and encouraging users to submit feedback as it considers what changes it might make.<\/p>\n
\nSometimes you want to talk, and sometimes you just \u2026 don’t.<\/p>\n
Check out these early concepts that could help control unwanted attention on Twitter.<\/p>\n
Feedback, especially at this beginning stage, is invited (and wanted)! \ud83e\uddf5 pic.twitter.com\/6SpzqiwFlL<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Dominic Camozzi (@_dcrc_) June 14, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
Potential features it\u2019s considering include letting users \u2018unmention\u2019 themselves \u2014 i.e. remove their name from another\u2019s tweet so they\u2019re no longer tagged in it (and any ongoing chatter around it won\u2019t keep appearing in their mentions feed).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also considering making an unmention action more powerful in instances where an account that a user doesn\u2019t follow mentions them \u2014 by providing a special notification to \u201chighlight potential unwanted situations\u201d.<\/p>\n
If the user then goes ahead and unmentions themselves Twitter envisages removing the ability of the tweet-composer to tag them again in future \u2014 which looks like it could be a strong tool against strangers who abuse @mentions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Twitter is also considering adding settings that would let users restrict certain accounts from mentioning them entirely. Which sounds like it would have come in pretty handy when president Trump was on the platform (assuming the setting could be deployed against public figures).<\/p>\n
\nTwitter permanently bans President Trump<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
Twitter also says it\u2019s looking at adding a switch that can be flipped to prevent anyone<\/em> on the platform from @-ing you \u2014 for a period of one day; three days; or seven days. So basically a \u2018total peace and quiet\u2019 mode.<\/p>\n
It says it wants to make changes in this area that can work together to help users by stopping \u201cthe situation from escalating further\u201d \u2014 such as by providing users with notifications when they\u2019re getting lots of mentions, combined with the ability to easily review the tweets in question and change their settings to shield themselves (e.g. by blocking all mentions for a day or longer).<\/p>\n
The known problem of online troll armies coordinating targeted attacks against Twitter users means it can take disproportionate effort for the object of a hate pile-on to shield themselves from the abuse of so many strangers.<\/p>\n
Individually blocking abusive accounts or muting specific tweets does not scale in instances when there may be hundreds \u2014 or even thousands \u2014 of accounts and tweets involved in the targeted abuse.<\/p>\n
For now, it remains to be seen whether or not Twitter will move forward and implement the exact features it\u2019s showing off via Camozzi\u2019s thread.<\/p>\n
A Twitter spokeswoman confirmed the concepts are \u201ca design mock\u201d and \u201cstill in the early stages of design and research\u201d. But she added: \u201cWe\u2019re excited about community feedback even at this early stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company will need to consider whether the proposed features might introduce wider complications on the service. (Such as, for example, what would happen to automatically scheduled tweets that include the Twitter handle of someone who subsequently flips the \u2018block all mentions\u2019 setting; does that prevent the tweet from going out entirely or just have it tweet out but without the person\u2019s handle, potentially lacking core context?)<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, those are small details and it\u2019s very welcome that Twitter is looking at ways to expand the utility of the tools users can use to protect themselves from abuse \u2014 i.e. beyond the existing, still fairly blunt, anti-abuse features (like block, mute and report tweet).<\/p>\n
Co-ordinated trolling attacks have, for years, been an unwanted \u2018feature\u2019 of Twitter\u2019s platform and the company has frequently been criticized for not doing enough to prevent harassment and abuse.<\/p>\n
The simple fact that Twitter is still looking for ways to provide users with better tools to prevent hate pile-ons \u2014 here in mid 2021 \u2014 is a tacit acknowledgment of its wider failure to clear abusers off its platform. Despite repeated calls<\/a> for it to act.<\/p>\n
A Google search for \u201c* leaves Twitter after abuse<\/a>\u201d returns numerous examples of high profile Twitter users quitting the platform after feeling unable to deal with waves of abuse \u2014 several from this year alone (including a number of footballers targeted with racist tweets).<\/p>\n
Other examples date back as long ago as 2013, underlining how Twitter has repeatedly failed to get a handle on its abuse problem, leaving users to suffer at the hands of trolls for well over a decade (or, well, just quit the service entirely).<\/p>\n
One recent high profile exit was the model Chrissy Teigen \u2014 who had been a long time Twitter user, spending ten years on the platform \u2014 but who pulled the plug on her account in March<\/a>, writing in her final tweets that she was \u201cdeeply bruised\u201d and that the platform \u201cno longer serves me positively as it serves me negatively\u201d.<\/p>\n
A number of soccer players in the UK have also been campaigning against racism on social media this year \u2014 organizing a boycott of services<\/a> to amp up pressure on companies like Twitter to deal with racist abusers.<\/p>\n
\nAt least 70 racial slurs on my social accounts counted so far. For those working to make me feel any worse than I already do, good luck trying \ud83d\udc4d\ud83c\udffe<\/p>\n
\u2014 Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) May 26, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
While public figures who use social media may be more likely to face higher levels of abusive online trolling than other types of users, it\u2019s a problem that isn\u2019t limited to users with a public profile. Racist abuse, for example, remains a general problem on Twitter. And the examples of celebrity users quitting over abuse that are visible via Google are certainly just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n
It goes without saying that it\u2019s terrible for Twitter\u2019s business if highly engaged users feel forced to abandon the service in despair.<\/p>\n
The company knows it has a problem. As far back as 2018<\/a> it said it was looking for ways to improve \u201cconversational health<\/a>\u201d on its platform \u2014 as well as, more recently, expanding its policies<\/a> and enforcement<\/a> around hateful and abusive tweets.<\/p>\n
It has also added some strategic friction<\/a> to try to nudge users to be more thoughtful and take some of the heat out of outrage cycles \u2014 such as encouraging users to read an article before directly retweeting it.<\/p>\n
Perhaps most notably it has banned some high profile abusers of its service \u2014 including, at long last, president troll<\/span> Trump himself earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A number of other notorious trolls<\/a> have also been booted over the years<\/a>, although typically only after Twitter had allowed them to carry on coordinating abuse of others via its service<\/a>, failing to promptly and vigorously enforce its policies against hateful conduct \u2014 letting the trolls get away with seeing how far they could push their luck \u2014 until the last.<\/p>\n
By failing to get a proper handle on abusive use of its platform for so long, Twitter has created a toxic legacy out of its own mismanagement \u2014 one that continues to land it unwanted attention from high profile users who might otherwise be key ambassadors for its service.<\/p>\n
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