Twitter making a user-friendly change

I thought this was an interesting topic to share because as our dependence on technology becomes more advanced, our priority for our security becomes imperative. Whether it’s through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media site, now more than ever there are more ways in which we can have confidential information taken from us and used in ways that can be harmful.

Twitter making this announcement is important for its brand particularly because it touches on the subject of trying to prevent nudity at all on twitter. This is twitter essentially digging into the topic of whether or not the material posted is owned by the person or the person who is in the photo, and in this instance by default the company is siding with the latter. In my opinion, I think this is only fair, especially if the content relates to very personal matters.

I personally think this is something Twitter needed to crack down on, particularly because social media giant Instagram has made it a big point to crack down on this sort of activity in the past. Instagram reserves the right to delete any content that they deem to be in violation of their censorship code of conduct. Things like this make the app more user friendly, which in turn leads to more users and thus revenue.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/10/20/twitter-aims-to-boost-user-safety-updates-its-rules.html

10 thoughts on “Twitter making a user-friendly change

  1. I was first compelled to read this article because I use Twitter on a daily basis. I believe this was a smart strategic move for Twitter. Not only does this protect users’ rights, but it helps to ensure that users’ have a “good experience” on the site. With stronger censorship, Twitter will be tackling on more responsibility for their users. As a result, Twitter will probably have to hire more employees to monitor content and user complaints for when these new rules are violated.

    I think this will impact the way users view and interact with Twitter. Twitter is notoriously known for its comical uncensored content and vulgar humor. In my opinion, this is what makes Twitter unique and stand apart from other social media outlets. Without users having an outlet to post content like this, will Twitter’s identity change to become something more structured?

    Personally, I support Twitter taking down abusive display names, hateful imagery and hateful symbols. I do not think that this kind of content should be promoted for people to follow. However, if I were to play devil’s advocate, I think this is what sparks conversation on Twitter. This conversation is what translates into Twitter trends and the creation of popular hashtags. And does this take away our first amendment right to have freedom of speech and expression? Is there a certain criteria Twitter will be using to evaluate what constitutes as hateful?

    Additionally, Twitter will need to find a way to break down violation reports. Some people choose to report a user just because he or she may not like them, not because the user posted inappropriate content. This leads me to the following question: what kind of new technology will Twitter use to expand its efforts on violation reports?

    I came across an article that examines the following questions: should Facebook and Twitter be regulated under the first amendment? Is there a right to free speech on social media owned by private corporations?

    For example, President Trump blocked Twitter users because they expressed negative opinions about him. That is why The Knight First Amendment Institute sued the President, his director of social media, and his press secretary to block the unblocked since institute believes Trump prohibited these people’s right to the freedom of speech.

    On the contrary, Noah Feldman of Harvard Law School said, “There’s no right to free speech on Twitter,” he asserted. “The only rule is that Twitter Inc. gets to decide who speaks and listens—which is its right under the First Amendment. If Twitter wants to block Trump, it can.” This demonstrates how our nation still struggles to maintain a definition for what exactly freedom of speech should be.

    Link: https://www.wired.com/story/should-facebook-and-twitter-be-regulated-under-the-first-amendment/

  2. While I find this post to be very interesting, I also think it is very one-sided. One of the first things I noticed was the source, Fox News. When I clicked on the link, I saw that Twitter is planning on monitoring a lot more than just nudity. While I agree that it is logical and appropriate to block nudity, I don’t necessarily agree with Twitter implementing a defense program against “hateful display names” and “hateful avatars.” I feel that filter systems often end up making more mistakes than helping situations… plus, Twitter is a place where users themselves will fight against hateful images and display names. It’s already being constantly monitored by its own users, and often people will draw negative attention to those who abuse their freedom on Twitter in the first place. In my opinion, for the most part, Twitter should leave its content up to its users. I do see how preventing the negativity could open up the possibility for adults and younger kids to join Twitter, but I think Twitter should stick to its target group of millennials. If everything is censored and opinions are taken down, millennials will most likely migrate to another platform, just like what happened with Facebook.

    I must say, however, I respect how Twitter wrote its terms and conditions on this topic. They realize that removing content should be last resort, and express this to users:
    https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170133

  3. I agree with the previous comments that talked about twitter blocking hate speech becoming a problem. Twitter is already known for blocking viewpoints that don’t agree with the corporation (not necessarily bad views but just ones that don’t agree with twitter) even as typing “twitter blocking….” into google two suggestions that came up were “conservatives” and “conservatives posts”. And I believe that this will be a trend that continues and builds as they start blocking anything that they deem as wrong. All of this is subjective.
    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/02/25/the_twitter_police_target_conservatives__129781.html

  4. While reading this article I came across many interesting points. I think it’s a very smart move on Twitter’s behalf to really focus on minimizing the amount of nonconsensual nudity on the website. This is a really big step toward minimizing rape culture on the internet. However, I am worried about their plan to eradicate any posts with hate speech. The only reason I’m concerned about this is due to the fact that it can become subjective. What defines hate speech? Where do you draw the line between an opinion and hate speech? This is a very touchy subject and one that Twitter need to be very cautious of. I also did not realize Rose McGowan’s twitter was temporarily locked after she posted allegations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein. I think Twitter’s image was greatly hurt by this, so it’s imperative they implement new policies in order to battle the biased and rape-culture supportive image they gained from this scandal.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/arts/rose-mcgowan-twitter-weinstein.html

  5. This is an interesting move by twitter. In some regards it may hurt them while in other’s, it opens them up to a completely new market. This market could be for younger kids and older adults. Because the content is more family friendly after taking down all of those posts, it gives twitter a new way to market their product. Parents would possibly let their kids get a twitter account at a younger age. It will be interesting to see however if this move increases users or if they will lose a lot of business. Twitter has been faltering and now is trying to find ways to revive their business by pivoting. I really agree that they are doing this for the reasons you stated, but I think the real reason they are making this change is to adjust their image and open up new markets.

    https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/09/twitter-tests-a-feature-that-warns-users-of-profiles-with-potentially-sensitive-content/

  6. While I agree this is a smart decision by Twitter, my immediate reaction is that it is compensating for the irresponsibility of its users. Like we learned in class, it is nearly impossible to hide or separate ourselves from our trail of actions online. Employers can easily find what photos we post of ourselves and or share of other people. computers, networks, internet service providers, shared file space, and certain organizations all have access to information about us. I think Twitter’s action is a positive direction, but more of a PR move and a band aid on a deeper issue. What would be more beneficial for users is more blatant disclosure of ownership rights to content and education on internet responsibility. Twitter users should be reminded that what they do on the site is both permanent and accessible.

  7. Personally, I believe this is a very strategic move by Twitter. With a younger brother who has just turned 12-years-old and is in seventh grade I am very protective with what he is exposed to on the internet. This allows many more parents and censored children to be allowed to create an account, and it opens up Twitter’s target market which is clever for marketing and public relations purposes. Although I do understand the beauty of Twitter is the uncensored material that can be comical or easily accessed I do not believe that the majority of users choose to get an account to see profanity. I have had several occasions on the social media platform that I have seen unwanted naked pictures on my newsfeed. It is truly unsettling and does not make my Twitter experience positive when situations like that take place. I believe that once someone posts on Twitter is it completely made public. Although the language use is something that is not worth censoring I believe images most definitely are. TechCrunch states, “The main issue here is over a section where the ToS [Terms of Service] mention Twitter’s ability to offer up the use of user-generated content and embedded tweets to other companies for promotion and distribution.” This goes along with my belief of tweets being public property once they are posted. Twitter is an extremely open and free atmosphere type of platform which is why I believe this is acceptable. Like I said, language barriers are unacceptable while I do think the barriers for images are necessary because of people like my younger brothers and thousands or millions of users like him. In the least political sense possible – this goes along with our freedom of speech, however this can bring up controversy in itself, because this is obviously an international social media platform and that amendment is solely for the United States.

    Source:
    Buhr, Sarah. “Twitter’s Terms of Service Are Making People Mad — but They’re Not new.” TechCrunch. TechCrunch, 02 Sept. 2017. Web.

  8. I am going to have to agree to the previous comment. I also believe what makes Twitter great is the “lack of censorship.” It is different from Facebook and Instagram because of the censorship. Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram are all about political views nowadays that it kind of takes the “thrill” out of the experience. Twitter is the only platform where savages can be savages for all of us to enjoy. In addition, if twitter changes to conform to the Facebook giant, what’s the differentiation? Twitter loses (in my opinion) their competitive advantage. Keep Twitter the same, because the last thing I need is to have more of a censored world then it already is.
    However, my views are not always every one’s views. For example, Twitter apparently released a statement saying the new censorship will enhance a “higher level of freedom of expression.” How is censoring increasing “freedom?” How is having limitation enabling freedom?

    Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/twitter-censorship/39446/

  9. I think that twitter has the right idea about inappropriate content, but I think they are going about it the wrong way. I think that they should just start with fixing the reporting system like it said and see where it goes from there. I think that this plan is implementing too much for a short amount of time. I have no idea if they are trying to compensate for the lack of user content monitoring or not, but I don’t think they should put such a long term plan into place yet.

  10. I think as a business decision this is a smart move by Twitter because it will most likely up their sponsorships and number of users from children getting accounts. But that doesn’t mean I completely agree with it. Twitter is different than other social media sites because it is more based on comedy and jokes than the other social media sites/apps. It is a little more rugged and you can be made fun of on a daily basis for a simple stupid tweet or response. In my opinion any moves made by Twitter to do the same things Instagram does or makes will hurt their brand from a user’s perspective. Twitter is loved by users because of how different it is and the lack of censorship. Also if you see an inappropriate image or tweet you can report them. In the article below, it talks about the percentage of people that report inappropriate material on social media sites. You can report people if you think it’s bad and they will take care of it. Also, you can block people. Now I don’t fully agree with doing this because if you block people based on political affiliation or tweets you can easily cause a major echo chamber. But it is still an option, so the censorship Twitter is adding I think could be just like Youtube censoring its site which a lot of users didn’t like. I know this is the way of the future, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

    https://wearechange.org/facebook-instagram-google-twitter-use-censorship-kill-free-speech/

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