Twitter has a troll problem. Even its CEO knows it. And now the company is doing more to prevent its users suffering abuse and threats on its service.
In a bid to make improvements, Twitter has announced new measures to
expand the process for reporting user safety concerns, and a system
that uses phone numbers to prevent those who repeatedly harass others
from creating new accounts.
The Verge reported that
Twitter will begin tracking phone numbers for known trolls. The problem
here is that serial trolls can easily (and quickly) open new accounts
and resume their harassment if Twitter shuts their account down.
Identifying them by their phone number can help track these efforts to
start over, and ultimately keep them and their vitriolic behavior off of
the service.
Twitter currently makes associating an account with a phone number
optional, but The Verge said that in cases where a user is found to be
harassing others, their account may be temporarily banned until they
provide their number. That number (and the email address used to
register the account) would then be checked against a list of known
trolls to decide whether a full ban is necessary. It’s not a perfect
solution the troll could abandon the banned account and open a new one
without supplying a number but it is certainly a positive step
forward.
Twitter is also expanding an initiative from last year that allowed bystanders
to report abuse previously it was limited to the victim only. Now it
is taking that same approach for instances of self-harm, impersonation,
and the publishing of private information.
The company revealed that it has tripled the size of its support team
in line with its increased focus on safety. In particular, Twitter said
that it now sees five times more reports after it began allowing third
parties to flag abuses.
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