Reading through the rules and regulations of a social media platforms looks like an easy task at first glance but that only lasts for the first two paragraphs. Due to the complex language associated with social media policies, some misunderstandings are bound to occur but the first platform to actually do something about it is Twitter.
The company has announced that it has now refreshed their rules with “simple, clear language and reorganizing them into high-level categories: safety, privacy and authenticity.” Twitter has also also added new details to election integrity, platform manipulation and spam.
The 2,500 words you could find in the document went down to under 600 and every rule now describes in detail what is not allowed on Twitter in 280 characters or less.
Twitter has also added new categories for safety, privacy and authenticity to allow the users to find the information they need easier and faster.
There’s examples and step-by-step instructions that lets the users know how to report, what will happen when Twitter will take action and, in the near future, it will expand that section to add standalone help pages for every rule in detail and with relevant resources so as to clear up any possible misunderstandings.
Twitter has come under fire lately for failing over and over again to take action against the accounts on its platform that contribute to hate speech – its policies about what that exactly entails are still muddled, just like the ones that should be dealing more strictly with white supremacists.
Hopefully, this new move will be just the first step in a change for the better that will last and make the platform a less toxic place that prioritizes growth through learning, just like Jack Dorsey initially envisioned it.
During TED 2019, Dorsey himself expressed his disappointment with what Twitter had become and he admitted that he never even thought that such issues will occur.
“Our purpose is to serve the public conversation, and we have seen a number of attacks on it. We’ve seen abuse, we’ve seen harassment, we’ve seen manipulation, automatic and human coordination, misinformation” he said on stage “What worries me most is our ability to address it in a systemic way that is scalable.”
Dorsey went on to say back then that Twitter does not intend to make superficial changes but changes that will last. That, of course, will take time so here’s to hoping that this small change is a step towards a better Twitter.
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