​Twitter offers more opportunities against trolls and hate messages

Twitter has been a bit out of favor for a while due to the many hateful posts and negativity on the platform, but thankfully that has changed a lot over the past few years. Of course you will always keep negativity, but that is no longer the norm on Twitter. It’s not just because of the way people have changed, but also because of some of the possibilities that Twitter has created. It now extends one of those options: safe mode.

Safe mode on Twitter

With Safety Mode, you can temporarily block accounts that send you nasty tweets. The algorithm can automatically mark accounts that send hate messages as “bad” accounts. This is followed by a week-long block. The expanded version is Proactive Safety Mode, which on its own flags potentially negative tweets and then directs users to Safety Mode.

The new feature is being added thanks to user feedback, Twitter said. It’s also understandable: you want to be confronted with hate messages as briefly as possible, so the sooner they are flagged, the better. You can also feel very lonely when you’re on the phone at night and receive all kinds of hateful messages. The fact that Twitter is “there for you” asking you ahead of time if you want to use safe mode will hopefully help you feel less bad.

Twitter

Safe mode can be activated in Twitter settings, after which the algorithm examines the relationship between the person sending messages and the recipient, in addition, of course, to the sentiment of the tweet. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to it yet in the Netherlands: initially, only North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand are up for grabs.

Twitter doesn’t do all of this just because it’s so nice. It also has a lot to do with governments wanting to better understand what Twitter is doing to combat online attacks. This doesn’t always apply to Twitter: governments often attack multiple social media outlets at once, asking them to tackle hate messages faster. It’s not just a request, as there are often gigantic fines when social media doesn’t provide enough information about it or doesn’t do enough.

Weapons against trolls

Whatever the idea behind Twitter, it’s good that there are more weapons against trolls. Thanks to the Security Mode, you are temporarily protected from it, possibly without the person being informed. On the one hand, it’s difficult, because you always want to know what someone is saying and if you’re not in danger, but on the other hand, they’re often empty shells and it’s better not to doing it to be exposed to it. Twitter plans to do more against online hate, so it’s likely to expand safe mode even more in the near future.