While social media platforms are a great way to keep in touch with friends and family and share your thoughts and ideas with the world, the fact that it is public also means that it leaves itself open to abuse from strangers. We have seen on more than one occasion how people have been bullied and chased off social media, and in some situations, it even led to suicide.
The good news is that Twitter is looking into doing something about it. In a tweet by Twitter’s VP of Engineering Ed Ho (via Engadget), he admits that Twitter did not move fast enough to curb the abuse last year, but they are working on changes that they will be pushing out in the next few days, and that they won’t stop until there is significant enough of an impact that can be felt.
We heard you, we didn’t move fast enough last year; now we’re thinking about progress in days and hours not weeks and months.
— Ed Ho (@mrdonut) January 31, 2017
Ho’s comments were backed up by Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey who wrote, “We’re taking a completely new approach to abuse on Twitter. Including having a more open & real-time dialogue about it every step of the way”. It is unclear as to what these changes are, but for those who are looking to cut out and filter the hate from Twitter, hopefully these changes will be of use to you.
We’re taking a completely new approach to abuse on Twitter. Including having a more open & real-time dialogue about it every step of the way https://t.co/a1SV7URPEK
— jack (@jack) January 31, 2017
In the meantime Twitter seems to be pretty open about entertaining suggestions from their users, so do chime in if you think you have a suggestion for the current problem.
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