{"id":3513,"date":"2017-02-14T22:32:42","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T22:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/twitter-quickly-kills-a-poorly-thought-out-anti-abuse-measure.html"},"modified":"2017-02-14T22:32:42","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T22:32:42","slug":"twitter-quickly-kills-a-poorly-thought-out-anti-abuse-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/twitter-quickly-kills-a-poorly-thought-out-anti-abuse-measure.html","title":{"rendered":"Twitter quickly kills a poorly thought out anti-abuse measure"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Twitter earlier this month announced a series of changes<\/a>\u00a0aimed at silencing abuse on its network, but a recent change to its service \u2013 which was quickly reversed following user feedback \u2013 indicates the company still doesn\u2019t have a good handle on how to handle online harassment. Via a tweet posted yesterday<\/a> by the Twitter Safety account, the company announced it would no longer notify users when they were added to a Twitter list.<\/p>\n

The tweet said \u201cwe want you to get notifications that matter\u201d \u2013 an implication that being added to a user\u2019s Twitter list was inconsequential information.<\/p>\n

\n

We want you to get notifications that matter. Starting today, you won’t get notified when you are added to a list. https:\/\/t.co\/82xiaZbg1W<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 13, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

While it\u2019s true that lists are an underutilized feature on the service, generally adopted by power users, they can be useful to organize various accounts you want to track without cluttering your timeline with their tweets.<\/p>\n

In some cases, a list addition is meant as a compliment. It\u2019s a nice ego boost to see your name added to a list of someone\u2019s favorites or their list of experts in a given\u00a0industry.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0being added to lists can also be a\u00a0form of harassment in and of itself.<\/p>\n

That is, if you tweet\u00a0something the abuser didn\u2019t like, you might find yourself added to a list with an offensive title, like \u201cf***ing morons,\u201d for instance. (Yes, that\u2019s a real example.) Because lists can also be shared<\/a>, they can\u00a0be used by a group who wants to barrage those on the list with regular abuse.<\/p>\n

As the security-focused Twitter user\u00a0@SwiftOnSecurity deftly explained<\/a>, the change\u00a0was \u201cblinding the vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

.@TwitterSafety<\/a> @Support<\/a> Critical for people to know if they’ve been added to a list intended for targets. This is blinding the vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u2014 SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) February 13, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

A better\u00a0path would not be removing the notifications, but change the blocking mechanism so that users could remove themselves from the lists of those accounts they\u2019ve blocked, they suggested.<\/p>\n

Twitter, to its credit, almost\u00a0immediately<\/a> rolled back the change upon hearing the online feedback from this account and numerous other Twitter users, including senior engineer at Slack, Erica Joy<\/a>, a well-known advocate<\/a> for diversity and inclusion in the tech industry.<\/p>\n

Twitter VP of Engineering Ed Ho tweeted<\/a> that the change was \u201ca misstep,\u201d and was being reversed.<\/p>\n

\n

@iglvzx<\/a> @jack<\/a> Hi Iggy, this was a misstep, we are reversing the change. Thank you and others for the feedback.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ed Ho (@mrdonut) February 13, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But\u00a0the fact that Twitter greenlighted the change in the first place is concerning, especially considering that the company has yet to figure out how to clamp down on the abuse on its network.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Twitter said it was launching a number of features to make its service safer. But many of the changes were focused on hiding abusive content, not removing it entirely. That is, Twitter\u00a0said it would do things like collapse abusive or low-quality tweets as well as introduce a safer search feature where sensitive content is hidden.<\/p>\n

Twitter also said it would make it more difficult for accounts that are permanently banned to return.<\/p>\n

As of yet, this latter agenda item has not resulted in the removal of the numerous hate speech-filled accounts on Twitter. But the company is considering a number of things to keep abusers from returning, like checking IP addresses, accounts with similar handles or emails, those that start @ replying the same people and using the same hashtags, for instance, according<\/a> to Mashable sources.<\/p>\n

In reality, many of the changes Twitter enacts may be too late.<\/p>\n

The company should have established the tone for its online community years ago through a series of enforced, consistent policies\u00a0that prohibited the type of content that\u00a0damages a social network (and even prevents its acquisition<\/a>). Trying to address the problem now is the equivalent to shoving the toothpaste back into the tube. Technically, it can be done \u2013 but it\u2019s going to be difficult and a huge mess, too.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/yV3sR1veFcc\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twitter earlier this month announced a series of changes\u00a0aimed at silencing abuse on its network, but a recent change to its service \u2013 which was quickly reversed following user feedback <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-3513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t