*Content Warning: mention of self harm, suicide, terrorism, and hate/bullying*
Twitter is one of the biggest platforms used in the social justice world. Twitter-famous social justice accounts (not unlike Affinity’s Twitter account) dedicate their feed through the use of hashtags, retweets, and tweet threads to educate and inform others on social issues. Twitter does a good job of supplying a multimedia platform for educating thousands of people and raising awareness with the click of a button, but there is one main problem that I often see especially in social justice Twitter: “dragging” or hateful conduct (could even be considered bullying or attacking/harassment). If you’re vocal about your beliefs or activism, then it is more than likely that you have received some kind of hate or backlash for it. On a more serious note, I have also seen people attacked on Twitter because of their gender, sexuality, race, or disability (specifically triggers come to mind). There is hope though!
Twitter has publicly said that they are actively working to reduce this hate problem on their site. In the past, Twitter has been criticized for not taking the necessary precautions needed to reduce the amount of mean or hateful content that is posted on their site.
Now they are finally doing something about it. Megan Cristina, director of Trust and Safety for Twitter, said “As always, we embrace and encourage diverse opinions and beliefs, but we will continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into abuse.” Twitter has come up with new set rules that indicate whether an account has crossed that line. The rules say that “you may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease”. This was especially made to target terrorist or hate groups (ISIS) who use Twitter for recruitment and to spread their hateful messages. This will also help identify possible terrorist or criminal activity. This could also be an influential move in working towards ending cyberbullying and harassment via the internet. Twitter plans to remove thousands of preexisting accounts that currently violate the rules. They also plan to block repeat offenders from ever being able to set up a new Twitter account again. Imagine a new, beautiful, and less hateful Twittersphere.
Another part of their plan has to do with self harm. The rules state that there is now a real possibility that Twitter will respond to reports that indicate that someone is considering self harm (I also imagine that suicide is included). Twitter will be able to contact the person and also provide them with contact information for mental health practitioners. I am proud of Twitter for taking such strong initiatives to ending prominent problems. Hopefully these rules will be strictly enforced. Think about all of the possible lives that could be saved or improved upon with these preventative measures. Big round of applause for Twitter!
