Twitter has a serious harassment issue.
Whether it’s Gamergate, the recent controversy surrounding Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones, or just everyday individuals using the social media platform, it’s far too easy for users to hide behind the platform’s anonymity in order to relentlessly target and harass other users.
In an effort to mitigate this issue, the San Francisco-based social network is reportedly working on a tool that allows users to filter the posts they see in their mentions and feed, removing tweets that contain a specific set of keywords. This would allow users to block swear words and racial slurs, and use something that more effective than outright blocking harassers who just go on to create another account after being banned from the platform.
Identifying specific keywords is similar to a moderation tool recently launched by Instagram that’s aimed at business users, celebrities and online personalities. The new feature allowed celebrities to block specific words, though trolls often misspell words in an effort to trick the content moderation system.
It’s unclear when the feature will launch, but according to Bloomberg, the source of these rumours, Twitter has stated it’s working on a “substantial update” focused on helping to solve the social network’s harassment issues.
[source]Bloomberg[/source]
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