Twitter claims its anti-abuse measures are helping, though many still disagree

Comment

Twitter today offered an update on how its improvements to user safety and its newer anti-abuse measures are having an impact. The company declined to share any hard numbers related to abuse on its network, including how many abuse reports have been filed, or the number of actions it’s taken, for example, noting instead across the board percentage increases on things like account suspensions, implementations to limit abusers’ account functionality, and the further results of those actions.

The report comes only days after a damning article from BuzzFeed painted a picture of a social network still afflicted by a systemic abuse problem, in which it described Twitter’s anti-harassment controls as a “largely cosmetic solution” and its algorithmic moderation systems as not as effective “as the company would like to think.”

The truth is that BuzzFeed and Twitter are both right. Twitter has implemented a number of anti-abuse controls that didn’t exist in the past, which are having some impact on Twitter’s abuse and remediation metrics. But BuzzFeed is right in calling out the network for not having done enough to actually curb the problem.

BuzzFeed’s analysis of the situation – which also highlights several personal stories from abuse victims – speaks to a network where Twitter is still slow to respond to abuse reports, then often returns with improper dismissals of users’ harassment claims.

In short, Twitter is still a network that enables trolls to thrive, and have a voice. In a simpler world, Twitter would just ban abusers once and for all, instead of toying with measures like “limited account functionality,” which is the internet equivalent of a slap on the hand. But unfortunately for all of us, Twitter needs its user numbers to grow, not stagnate or drop thanks to widescale account bans.

According to Twitter’s announcement today, the company claims to be taking action on 10 times the number of abusive accounts every day, compared with the same time last year. It says that its new systems which remove repeat offenders who create new accounts after suspensions have removed twice the number of these types of accounts in the last four months.

It also says that those accounts that are put into a limited functionality mode are told why, and this has resulted in 25 percent fewer abuse reports from those accounts. In addition, 65 percent of those accounts are only put into this mode one time. (That latter stat, though designed to paint a picture of a system that works, could also be flipped on its head – perhaps some of those accounts deserved a second action, but didn’t receive one?)

Twitter noted, too, its muting tools are being adopted, and blocks after @mentions from people you don’t follow are down 40 percent.

The company also seemed to be responding directly to the characterization of its network as described by BuzzFeed when it wrote:

“We have consistent harassment definitions and policies that apply to everyone. However, people define abuse differently, so using these new tools, every person has control of what they see and experience on Twitter.”

There’s perhaps some truth to the statement that everyone defines abuse differently, and that’s even more of an issue during a time when our larger culture is struggling with where to draw with free speech; there are those who hold opinions that people deserve to be treated with respect, and there are those who will then demean that group as “snowflakes” who can’t handle even the slightest negativity in their lives.

There are other questions here that need to be answered – like, to what extent does a social network like Twitter amplify those differences, then back people into corners related to their respective positions? Is it perhaps possible that Twitter’s very existence and the way it was designed encourages people to break the age-old internet rule: “don’t feed the trolls?” Could it be that Twitter’s embrace of anonymity – despite the valid reasons to do so (like allowing those under authoritarian regimes to have a voice) – actually does more harm than good in the long run?

Twitter surely needs to do more – there should be no hand-slaps for people who tweet out violent threats or disclose personal information on private citizens – like where they live – as a means of threatening them. But to what end can it really create a kinder, gentler breeding ground for online discourse, when we’ve proven as a people that’s something we’re not capable of?

More TechCrunch

The Series C funding, which brings its total raise to around $95 million, will go toward mass production of the startup’s inaugural products

AI chip startup DEEPX secures $80M Series C at a $529M valuation 

A dust-up between Evolve Bank & Trust, Mercury and Synapse has led TabaPay to abandon its acquisition plans of troubled banking-as-a-service startup Synapse.

Infighting among fintech players has caused TabaPay to ‘pull out’ from buying bankrupt Synapse

The problem is not the media, but the message.

Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is disgusting

The Twitter for Android client was “a demo app that Google had created and gave to us,” says Particle co-founder and ex-Twitter employee Sara Beykpour.

Google built some of the first social apps for Android, including Twitter and others

WhatsApp is updating its mobile apps for a fresh and more streamlined look, while also introducing a new “darker dark mode,” the company announced on Thursday. The messaging app says…

WhatsApp’s latest update streamlines navigation and adds a ‘darker dark mode’

Plinky lets you solve the problem of saving and organizing links from anywhere with a focus on simplicity and customization.

Plinky is an app for you to collect and organize links easily

The keynote kicks off at 10 a.m. PT on Tuesday and will offer glimpses into the latest versions of Android, Wear OS and Android TV.

Google I/O 2024: How to watch

For cancer patients, medicines administered in clinical trials can help save or extend lives. But despite thousands of trials in the United States each year, only 3% to 5% of…

Triomics raises $15M Series A to automate cancer clinical trials matching

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Tap, tap.…

Tesla drives Luminar lidar sales and Motional pauses robotaxi plans

The newly announced “Public Content Policy” will now join Reddit’s existing privacy policy and content policy to guide how Reddit’s data is being accessed and used by commercial entities and…

Reddit locks down its public data in new content policy, says use now requires a contract

Eva Ho plans to step away from her position as general partner at Fika Ventures, the Los Angeles-based seed firm she co-founded in 2016. Fika told LPs of Ho’s intention…

Fika Ventures co-founder Eva Ho will step back from the firm after its current fund is deployed

In a post on Werner Vogels’ personal blog, he details Distill, an open-source app he built to transcribe and summarize conference calls.

Amazon’s CTO built a meeting-summarizing app for some reason

Paris-based Mistral AI, a startup working on open source large language models — the building block for generative AI services — has been raising money at a $6 billion valuation,…

Sources: Mistral AI raising at a $6B valuation, SoftBank ‘not in’ but DST is

You can expect plenty of AI, but probably not a lot of hardware.

Google I/O 2024: What to expect

Dating apps and other social friend-finders are being put on notice: Dating app giant Bumble is looking to make more acquisitions.

Bumble says it’s looking to M&A to drive growth

When Class founder Michael Chasen was in college, he and a buddy came up with the idea for Blackboard, an online classroom organizational tool. His original company was acquired for…

Blackboard founder transforms Zoom add-on designed for teachers into business tool

Groww, an Indian investment app, has become one of the first startups from the country to shift its domicile back home.

Groww joins the first wave of Indian startups moving domiciles back home from US

Technology giant Dell notified customers on Thursday that it experienced a data breach involving customers’ names and physical addresses. In an email seen by TechCrunch and shared by several people…

Dell discloses data breach of customers’ physical addresses

Featured Article

Fairgen ‘boosts’ survey results using synthetic data and AI-generated responses

The Israeli startup has raised $5.5M for its platform that uses “statistical AI” to generate synthetic data that it says is as good as the real thing.

14 hours ago
Fairgen ‘boosts’ survey results using synthetic data and AI-generated responses

Hydrow, the at-home rowing machine maker, announced Thursday that it has acquired a majority stake in Speede Fitness, the company behind the AI-enabled strength training machine. The rowing startup also…

Rowing startup Hydrow acquires a majority stake in Speede Fitness as their CEO steps down

Call centers are embracing automation. There’s debate as to whether that’s a good thing, but it’s happening — and quite possibly accelerating. According to research firm TechSci Research, the global…

Retell AI lets companies build ‘voice agents’ to answer phone calls

TikTok is starting to automatically label AI-generated content that was made on other platforms, the company announced on Thursday. With this change, if a creator posts content on TikTok that…

TikTok will automatically label AI-generated content created on platforms like DALL·E 3

India’s mobile payments regulator is likely to extend the deadline for imposing market share caps on the popular UPI (unified payments interface) payments rail by one to two years, sources…

India likely to delay UPI market caps in win for PhonePe-Google Pay duopoly

Line Man Wongnai, an on-demand food delivery service in Thailand, is considering an initial public offering on a Thai exchange or the U.S. in 2025.

Thai food delivery app Line Man Wongnai weighs IPO in Thailand, US in 2025

Ever wonder why conversational AI like ChatGPT says “Sorry, I can’t do that” or some other polite refusal? OpenAI is offering a limited look at the reasoning behind its own…

OpenAI offers a peek behind the curtain of its AI’s secret instructions

The federal government agency responsible for granting patents and trademarks is alerting thousands of filers whose private addresses were exposed following a second data spill in as many years. The…

US Patent and Trademark Office confirms another leak of filers’ address data

As part of an investigation into people involved in the pro-independence movement in Catalonia, the Spanish police obtained information from the encrypted services Wire and Proton, which helped the authorities…

Encrypted services Apple, Proton and Wire helped Spanish police identify activist

Match Group, the company that owns several dating apps, including Tinder and Hinge, released its first-quarter earnings report on Tuesday, which shows that Tinder’s paying user base has decreased for…

Match looks to Hinge as Tinder fails

Private social networking is making a comeback. Gratitude Plus, a startup that aims to shift social media in a more positive direction, is expanding its wellness-focused, personal reflections journal to…

Gratitude Plus makes social networking positive, private and personal

With venture totals slipping year-over-year in key markets like the United States, and concern that venture firms themselves are struggling to raise more capital, founders might be worried. After all,…

Can AI help founders fundraise more quickly and easily?