Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big fan of Twitter. I have been accused of ‘living on Planet Twitter’ and to date have tweeted over 46, 000 times.
The micro blogging platform has been my favourite for many years now (I expand on this (at length J) in my book ‘Platforms of Choice – I.Love.Twitter.’) and it’s been a great way to get breaking news, keep in touch with what’s going on around the world and stay connected and engaged with other like-minded individuals.
While it’s old news that Twitter’s had its fair share of issues around the safety of users particularly on cyberbullying and trolling, they have been trying to improve user safety – I wrote a recent blog post on the roll out of it’s new features here – the urgent need for this was again highlighted by their former CEO Dick Costolo in February on how they ‘suck’ at ‘dealing with trolling’.
It now seems that this is being stepped up a gear, something which I am pleased to hear – and see implemented where Twitter continues to take a more proactive role in stamping out behaviour which constitutes abuse. In a recent blog post Twitter’s Megan Cristina (@megancristina), (Director – Trust + Safety) shared insight into what the new updated rules mean and to clarify what Twitter consider to be abusive behaviour and hateful conduct. ‘Twitter will not tolerate behaviour intended to harass, intimidate, or use fear to silence another user’s voice’, adding that Twitter would ‘continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into abuse’.
For me this signals that Twitter realises the need to continue improving and promoting the tools users have access to, to help them protect themselves on its platform – to block, mute and report abusive behaviour.
Cristina added that making actions mandatory has shown success for ‘suspected abusive behaviour, such as email and phone verification, and user deletion of Tweets for violations’.
Within the new rules Twitter are also attempting to deal with self harm and suicide on the platform by signposting to mental health organisations who can provide help.
While not before time, the updates to Twitter’s new rules are very user friendly and positive. Another area that could be improved upon would be its verified account process – perhaps making it a little more similar to Facebook which allows users who meet certain guidelines to apply to have their accounts verified on the platform. This would enable users to recognise authentic accounts and could further enhance developments in Twitter’s user safety policy.
As between 20% – 70% of students in the schools I speak in now use Twitter the new rules developments are very welcome. Long may they continue.
Posted By Wayne Denner
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