Twitter Taking Steps Around Controls, Enforcement, Reporting to Address Abusive Conduct

Addressing challenges in preventing abuse, bullying and harassment on Twitter, the social media website said in a Tuesday blog post that it's made progress in the areas of controls, reporting and enforcement to better help users. One feature called "mute," which enables users to stop seeing tweets from certain accounts, is being expanded, it said. "We’re enabling you to mute keywords, phrases, and even entire conversations you don’t want to see notifications about, rolling out to everyone in the coming days." The company will also give users a "more direct way" to report specific conduct that targets people based on their age, disability, disease, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, national origin, race, religious affiliation and sexual orientation. "This will improve our ability to process these reports, which helps reduce the burden on the person experiencing the abuse, and helps to strengthen a culture of collective support on Twitter," the company said. The site said it's "retrained" its support team on policies, "including special sessions on cultural and historical contextualization of hateful conduct, and implemented an ongoing refresher program." Twitter said it also improved internal tools and systems to effectively address abusive conduct when reported.