Social media is both a boon and a bane to humanity for so many reasons. And while it is indeed interesting and fun to go on Twitter, read updates and opinions, and start conversations, a lot of times we encounter abusive tweets and users, whether directed at us or those that we see thrown at other people. Twitter is now introducing new policies and procedures to curb abusive tweets and to punish those who are sending said tweets.
Twitter’s violent threats policy has been updated and now includes “threats of violence against others or promot[ing] violence against others.” The old one used to just deal with direct and specific threats and limited the social network’s ability to act on abusive tweets that did not meet that criteria, even though the content is obviously too far over the line already. They are also making additions to their enforcements actions when you are found guilty of posting abusive content. Twitter can now lock your account for a specific period of time if there have been a certain number of complaints about you and the content you’re posting violates the violent threats policy. Other already existing actions include asking the user to delete the tweet so their account will be unlocked, or asking to verify their mobile number, in case it looks like someone has hacked their account.
Another new procedure that Twitter is trying out is to help them figure out when tweets are considered abusive by taking into consideration several factors, including age of the account, similar content to other tweets deemed abusive, and “a wide range of signals and context that frequently correlates with abuse.” They also added that they are not taking into account if the post is considered “controversial or unpopular”. They say this will not affect the content that you read from accounts that you follow.
It’s good that Twitter has updated their policies and procedure, especially in light of the “Direct Messages for Anyone” option (emphasis on option) that they have introduced. There are risks of getting spam messages and even threatening ones, so it would be best to think about it first, before deciding to turn it on. If you’d like to review their violent threats policies, they have it up on their site.
SOURCE: Twitter
VIA: SlashGear
