Twitter testing new anti-harassment feature

PanARMENIAN.Net - Twitter’s latest attempt to make its platform less hostile is a “sensitive account” system whereby some users’ profiles are flagged as containing “potentially sensitive images or language.” The warning takes up the entire profile page, requiring users to click or tap a prompt to agree to view the profile, The Verge reports.

The idea, it seems, is to gate some users’ accounts behind this warning, either as a way to mediate the behavior of users or as a way to wall these accounts off from the general Twitter populace. A company spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that this is just a test “as part of our broader efforts to make Twitter safer.”

But like with most of Twitter’s anti-harassment measures, there’s a noticeable lack of transparency and a fair amount of obfuscation as to how accounts are deemed sensitive, The Verge says. Both Mashable and Gizmodo collected tweets from users who were unaware their profiles were displaying this warning until other Twitter users pointed it out. Twitter doesn’t appear to have any sort of review or appeals process in place.

It’s also unclear if an account is deemed sensitive through user reports or some other automated method. This lack of information on the process opens up the possibility that well-meaning and non-abusive Twitter users could have their accounts wrongly flagged as sensitive if enough trolls report them, or if Twitter’s own algorithms mistakenly identity some shared images or videos as inappropriate.

These missteps are reminiscent of a recent debacle in which Twitter was forced to roll back a change to how users are notified about public lists they’re put on, after widespread complaints that it would make it harder, not easier, to combat harassment.