Finally, Twitter has come up with a strong solution to tackle harassment and abuse on the network. Last year, Twitter was the center of the debate as it struggled to effectively deal with harassment and online trolls. The platform was heavily criticized for failing to provide adequate and responsive protection to its users. Even Dick Costolo, who was CEO at that time said, “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years.” So, it was really a big worry for both Twitter and the Twitter users.
To ensure that people express themselves freely and confidently on Twitter, the company is planning a regular and consistent action to curb harassment & abuse. While Dick Costolo vowed to fix the issues personally and he even introduced & implemented smaller improvements, but the company has taken a step forward to ensure the users feel safe on the network. Moreover, the company announced that Twitter will do more to tackle harassment and online abuse so that people feel safe expressing them on the network.
Twitter’s UK head of policy, Nick Pickles said “there wouldn’t be one particular safety project, but regular and consistent action throughout the year.” And this comes from the top of the company- “safety is never finished.”
The company announced Twitter trust and safety council, a panel of representatives from 40 diverse organizations around the world, who will provide input on company’s safety programs, products and policies so that the issues can be tackled more efficiently & quickly. The organizations will cover a range of sectors including safety advocates, mental health charity the Samaritans, digital citizenship, grassroots advocacy organizations etc. Regular group meetings & discussions will be planned to hear feedback on product improvements and ideas for the platform.
Though it’s still not clear what the collaboration exactly is or whether the company plans to expand the council in future or not. Company sources said that “Twitter empowers every voice to shape the world, but you can’t do that unless you feel safe and confident enough to express yourself freely and connect with the world around you and we are enabling everyone, everywhere to express them confidently on the network.”