Ever since its existence, Twitter has been plagued with a noteworthy hate speech and abuse problem. This has even led to failed acquisition talks from several high-profile Silicon Valley suitors. But, the micro-blogging platform is steadily trying to get a grip on the abuse and trolls to project itself in a better light. It has recently also rolled out changes to further fight the spread of abuse and related content.
With regards to the same, Twitter tried taking its first step in this direction but it back-fired almost instantly. And the minimal change made to the platform had to reversed within a couple hours.
Earlier today, Twitter took to its Safety account on the platform to announce that users will no longer receive unnecessary notifications — it will only send notifications that matter. This meant not killing the notification in its entirety but shutting down notifications for when users are added to some list by another user. The company took the said step as it’s already a hidden feature on mobile apps but is extremely handy to identify the lists users have joined on the web.
We want you to get notifications that matter. Starting today, you won’t get notified when you are added to a list. https://t.co/82xiaZbg1W
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 13, 2017
Since the tweet was sent out by Twitter Safety, the purpose of this change was not to just eliminate notifications. It was targeted towards the ongoing campaign against abuse and harassment on the micro-blogging platform. But, the users didn’t deem the said change as fitting since it would no longer notify users about what lists they’ve been added to. Now, they could be on the ‘stupid idiots of 2017’ list without knowing. It is the sole task of hate groups to build such lists in secret, with a set of intrusive and abusive tweets that follow.
@TwitterSafety Being added to a list and knowing what list you were added to was literally the last useful thing about Twitter.
— Anthony Quintano ? (@AnthonyQuintano) February 13, 2017
@SwiftOnSecurity @TwitterSafety @Support yeah no this update is bad and seems to misunderstand the nature of abuse on the platform cc @jack
— jake (@jakebeckman) February 13, 2017
Thus, the users voiced their views saying that the notification system change propagated hate speech instead of clamping down on it. Twitter seems to be having trouble understanding the nature of abuse problem on their own platform. And this is in fact true, the said change would have give trolls and abusive users a chance of their lifetime. They could use the platform for their benefit by performing the sole task they do best — spread hate.
Hence, Twitter instantly took into account user feedback and reverted the change made to their notification system. The company tweeted out that notifications for list additions were staying in place through their Twitter Safety account. But, the company’s VP of Engineering Ed Ho also tweeted out that the change is being reversed and the feedback has been taken into consideration — might be helpful in better policy roll-outs in the future.
@rjcc @AnthonyQuintano @TwitterSafety Thank you both for the feedback, we hear you. We are reversing the change.
— Ed Ho (@mrdonut) February 13, 2017
