Twitter Introduces A New Anti-harassment Feature Called Safety Mode
Twitter introduces a new anti-harassment feature called 'Safety Mode'
Twitter is stepping up its efforts to assist users who are subjected to harassment in defending themselves.
The social media firm revealed on Wednesday that it is testing a new tool called "Safety Mode" that tries to protect users from being overwhelmed by hazardous tweets, unwelcome replies and mentions. The functionality prevents accounts from connecting with persons to whom they have sent offensive language or made frequent and unwanted replies or remarks.
"We want you to have healthy conversations, and this test is one way we're limiting the overwhelming and unwanted interactions that sometimes interrupt them," Twitter (TWTR) said in a statement. "Our objective is to improve the protection of individuals who receive Tweets by lowering the prevalence and visibility of damaging statements."
Twitter and Widespread distribution of abusive and offensive information
Twitter has long been criticized for the widespread distribution of abusive and offensive information on its platform, which may sometimes spill over into the offline world, particularly content directed at women and other oppressed groups. Twitter recently revealed a significant slate of new anti-harassment features in 2017, when it introduced tools such as a "safe search" function and the ability to filter out potentially abusive and "low-quality" tweets from conversations.
However, the corporation has recently been discussing how to crack down on abusive behavior. In June, Twitter privacy designer Dominic Camozzi published a thread outlining several early feature proposals for preventing harassment, including the option for users to untag themselves from tweets and discussions and the ability to block oneself from being mentioned for many days.
When a user activates the Safety Mode feature in settings, Twitter's computers will examine the "content and relationship between the tweet author and replier" of incoming tweets. If Twitter's automatic system determines that an account has engaged in repeated, damaging interactions with a person, the account will be blocked from following the user's account, viewing their tweets, or sending them direct messages for seven days.
Finally
Twitter spokesperson Tatiana Britt stated that the company does not send out alerts informing users that they have been blocked. If the violation navigates to the user's page, they will notice that "Twitter automatically blacklisted them" and that the person is in Safety Mode, she explained.
According to the business, its algorithm considers existing relationships to prevent blocking accounts with whom a user frequently communicates, and users can review and amend their blocking decisions at any time.
For the time being, Safety Mode is only available to "a small feedback group" of English-language users on iOS, Android, and Twitter.com, including "people from marginalized populations and female journalists."
