Twitter is a wide-open network – anyone can join, and have access to anyone else who’s also a member. That’s part of what makes it fun, but for some that’s also what makes it hell.
All social networks have their jerks and trolls, and it’s a given that the larger a social network becomes, the more annoying users it will attract. Twitter’s operators have long valued openness over comfort, but issues with bullying, stalking, threats, offensive words and visuals have begun to drive some people away. CEO Dick Costolo admitted in a memo to his staff that “we suck at dealing with abuse” , and vowed to improve the network’s tools for dealing with aggressive losers.
One of those tools began rolling out on Monday. Available for now only for Verified users (those with the blue checkmarks next to their names), the “Quality filter” aims to keep you from seeing content that might attack or offend you. It’s unclear if it will eventually be offered to everyone, based on a company statement made to The Verge .
Initially spotted Monday afternoon by longtime tech blogger and entrepreneur Anil Dash, it shows up as a single slider-button setting in the iOS version of Twitter’s app.
Well, that's an interesting & welcome addition, Twitter! (Was prompted about this on opening the app.) pic.twitter.com/Ka2VDvqwNf
— Anil Dash (@anildash) March 23, 2015
This is an admirable attempt by Twitter to clean up the network, but unfortunately, it’s being left to an algorithm. As I pointed out to Anil, it’s only welcome if it works well . The nuance of speech is tricky enough to parse by humans, much less a machine , and I worry that satire, sarcasm and humor will go unseen with this filter turned on.
This is just the latest set of tools Twitter has added aimed at protecting its users from idiots. The company streamlined the process for reporting bad behavior , and made it easier to report issues to law enforcement . These steps involve humans making a judgement, which is better than having a machine do it.
I’m a Verified user on Twitter, but I don’t see the Quality filter option yet. I won’t be turning it on, though – I’m not interested in having code decide what is and isn’t appropriate for me to see.
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