Twitter forms safety council to prevent abuse

Twitter is forming a coalition with outside groups and experts to help shape its products and policies as it attempts to cut back on abuse and attract more users. 

In a blog post published on Tuesday, Twitter said the Twitter Trust & Safety Council will be comprised of more than 40 groups, including advocacy organisations, researchers and safety experts who will review policies and the products Twitter rolls out. “With hundreds of millions of Tweets sent per day, the volume of content on Twitter is massive, which makes it extraordinarily complex to strike the right balance between fighting abuse and speaking truth to power,” says Patricia Cartes, Twitter’s head of global policy outreach. 

Participating groups include Anti-Bullying Pro, Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, Family Online Safety Institute, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline. The introduction of the council is the latest response by Twitter to combat abuse received by some users. In late 2014, Twitter unveiled a series of new tools to make it easier to block abusive users and report them for harassment. 

Twitter also introduced some small tweaks to its privacy policy in December detailing what actions qualify as abusive behaviour, including an emphasis on “hateful conduct.” Hopefully, this effort, with a broader range of groups involved, will have a bigger impact. 

As the company struggles to attract and retain users, it can’t afford to take many more hits to its reputation.