Twitter has been, for better or for worse, a powerful discussion tool in 2017. What used to be a safe haven for stress relief and laugh-out-loud memes has become more of a forum for serious debate about politics and human rights. In light of the increasing outrage happening on the site, CEO Jack Dorsey has once again emerged publicly to announce that he and his team are committed to further positive discussion by strengthening its anti-abuse policy.
This change comes in succession of several others this year, including changing the word-count of a single tweet from 140 to 280 characters, virtually revamping their entire design interface and introducing “moments” to their platform. (Snapchat must feel honoured.) Whether we like it or not, Twitter has behaved like any successful business would: they access the mood of the zeitgeist, and adapt to it accordingly.
7/ New rules around: unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence.
— jack (@jack) October 14, 2017
Unfortunately for them, the zeitgeist now seems to be moving faster than they can react to it. In fact, just 24 hours before Dorsey had come out with his statements against violence and indecency, the Internet was going through yet another controversial hashtag-led social media movement. Women (and men) from all across the digital globe participated in #WomenBoycottTwitter, which encouraged users to not engage with Twitter for 24 hours as a form of silent protest.
This was sparked due to an incident made public by American actress Rose McGowan, whose Twitter was briefly banned shortly after she revealed her personal encounters with sexual assault in Hollywood. Twitter tried to clarify that she had leaked a private phone number in one of her posts, which violated their guidelines, but many other users — like Kelly Ellis, a former Google software engineer, who coined the #WomenBoycottTwitter movement — strongly believed this was a direct oppression of women like McGowan from speaking their truth against authority.
https://twitter.com/justkelly_ok/status/918362427187781632
Regardless of intent, it is clear that Twitter’s conventional, cookie-cutter approach to policing what can or cannot be content for their site always seems to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths. If Dorsey and his team genuinely want Twitter to become a safe space for all, they need to start being more transparent.
Header: Fast Company
