Twitter Inc has removed a feature over the past few days that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources for users viewing certain content, according to two people familiar with the matter who said it was being pushed by new owner Elon Musk. The order was given.
The removal of the feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, was not previously reported. It showed top specific search contacts for aid organizations in several countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual abuse, COVID-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression.
Its elimination could add to concerns about the well-being of vulnerable users on Twitter. Musk has said exposure to, or views of, harmful content is declining since taking office in October and tweeted graphs showing a downward trend, even as researchers and civil rights groups criticized racial slurs and other Tracked an increase in tweets containing hateful content.
Twitter and Musk did not respond to requests for comment on the removal of the feature.
Washington-based AIDS United, which was promoted in #ThereIsHelp, and iLaw, a Thai group cited for its support of freedom of expression, both told Reuters on Friday that the feature’s disappearance was surprising to them. Was.
AIDS United said of a webpage that as of December 18, a webpage linked to the Twitter feature was viewed about 70 times a day. Since then it has been seen a total of 14 times.
Damar Juniarto, executive director of Twitter partner Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, tweeted about the missing feature on Friday and said a “stupid act” by the social media service may have prompted his organization to drop it.
Reuters could not immediately establish why Musk ordered the removal of the feature. Sources with knowledge of his decision declined to be named because they feared retaliation. One of them said that millions of people have encountered #ThereIsHelp messages.
Erliani Abdul Rahman, who was on the recently disbanded Twitter Content Advisory Group, said the disappearance of #TheIsHelp was “extremely disturbing and deeply troubling”.
Even if it was only temporarily removed to make way for improvements, “normally you would be working in parallel, not removing it,” he said.
Due to pressure from consumer protection groups, Internet services including Twitter, Google and Facebook have for years tried to direct users to well-known resource providers such as government hotlines when they suspect someone is in danger.
Twitter had indicated some about five years ago and some were available in more than 30 countries, according to a company tweet. In one of its blog posts about the feature, Twitter had said that it has a responsibility to ensure that users can “access our service and get support when they need it most.”
As Musk bought the company, the feature was expanded to show information related to natural disaster discoveries in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Alex Goldenberg, principal intelligence analyst at the non-profit network Contagion Research Institute, said the signals shown in search results a few days ago were no longer visible as of Thursday.
He and his colleagues published a study in August showing that monthly mentions on Twitter of certain words related to self-harm increased by more than 500% compared to a year earlier, with younger users There is a risk, especially when viewing such material.
Goldenberg said, “If this decision marks a policy change that they no longer take these issues seriously, then that is extraordinarily dangerous.” “This runs counter to Musk’s previous commitments to prioritize child safety.”
Musk has said he wants to combat child pornography on Twitter and has criticized the previous ownership’s handling of the issue. But they have cut out large parts of the teams involved in dealing with potentially objectionable material.
read all Latest Tech News Here
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)