Twitter Trolls Update: Three Ways Platform Will Curb Abusive Accounts, Including Expanded Mute Button

Twitter is taking new steps to curb abuse on its platform, by using algorithms to find accounts that carry out abusive tweets, the company announced Wednesday.

Twitter’s announcement comes after previous steps against abuse enacted in November and earlier this year.

Through algorithms, the platform will identify accounts that are tweeting abusive content, even if it hasn’t been reported yet. Twitter will also limit what accounts can do for a specific timeframe, such as allowing only their followers to see their tweets. This would happen if a user repeatedly tweets at non-followers or is engaging in patterns of abusive behavior, Twitter said.

“Our platform supports the freedom to share any viewpoint, but if an account continues to repeatedly violate the Twitter Rules, we will consider taking further action,” Twitter’s Vice President of Engineering Ed Ho in a blog post.

New Filtering Options For Twitter Notifications

Twitter is also rolling out new filtering options for your notifications to allow for more control over what they you see from specific types of accounts. These accounts include users that have no profile picture, like the ones that show the egg instead, and those without unverified email addresses or phone numbers.

Expanding The Mute Button On Twitter

In November, Twitter introduced an expansion of its Mute button by allowing users to mute keywords, phrases and complete conversations they don’t want to get notifications on. Now users will be able to mute from their home timeline and decided how long they want to mute the content, ranging from one day, a month or forever. The new change is not restrained to only curbing abuse, but will also allow you to mute tweets about things you don’t care about.

Reporting Abuse On Twitter

When you report an abusive account, keep an eye on your notifications tab. Twitter said it will keep you updated about the situation. This goes for reports you have submitted on accounts that have targeted you or someone else.

These new changes come after previous steps announced last year and earlier this year, which included stopping the creation of new abusive accounts by banned users, strengthening safer search results and hiding “potentially abusive or low-quality Tweets.”

Twitter Trump Trolls

Last year, Twitter banned the account of Milo Yiannopoulos, the former editor at the conservative news website Breitbart. He was banned in July 2016 after he viciously attacked Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones with racist and sexist remarks.

Twitter also banned numerous alt-right accounts in November, including that of white nationalist/activist Richard Spencer. However, his account was reinstated about a month later.

The recent updates will roll out globally in the coming days and weeks. Twitter said Wednesday it will implement more steps to curb online abuse soon.