Seems like every day people call out Twitter for not working aggressively enough to curb harassment. And lately, it seems like every few weeks the beleaguered company rolls out new features and policies to show it hears those complaints.
Today is no different---except maybe it is. Because today is the day the egg---the default icon for an account when a user doesn't upload a profile picture of their own---maybe dies. Twitter today has unveiled a new set of tools requested by many anti-harassment advocates that could go far to keep trolls out of people's feeds, relying on both automation and user preference to filter out abuse. "We’re continuing our work to make Twitter safer, moving faster than ever to do so," says Ed Ho, Twitter’s vice president of engineering, sounding the note the company desperately wants a wary public to hear.
Twitter says it has developed algorithms that can detect when an account engages in abusive behavior—for instance, if it repeatedly tweets at non-followers. The company says it will start to limit the reach of the tweets from those flagged accounts. During this Twitter time out, only the followers of the account can see what these users have said. Twitter may enforce this penalty even when no one has reported these accounts as potentially abusive. (The company has tested this approach in the past but now plans to apply it more widely.)
Other indications of sketchy accounts include having no profile photo, as well as having an unverified email addresses or phone number. Twitter will now let users filter "Twitter eggs" out of their notifications. The company will also let users mute certain keywords, phrases, or entire conversations from their home timelines. (Twitter recently allowed users do the same thing on notifications.) You can choose how long you want to the mute to persist—a day, week, month, or forever.
Finally, Twitter says it’s improving on its abuse reporting process, adding progress updates in a user’s notifications tab. These will include both complaints users have made for themselves and on the behalf of others. on your own harassment or reports you bring to Twitter about others’ harassment.
The changes sound like marked improvements to the platform all around. And yet, if these changes sound familiar, it’s because others have suggested them before. Yes, Twitter has finally chosen to act, and that’s commendable. The changes also apply to all Twitter accounts, not just ones with the blue “verified” check—a caste system that has alienated some. Twitter may not have stamped out the root causes of harassment on its platform—and maybe it can't. But at least you may never have to see an egg again.
