Twitter users have fallen victims to 'trolls', otherwise known as people who deliberately incite anger by posting provocative messages in order to goad or cause heated argument.
The popularly used social networking site has recently introduced new tools for its users, which provide easier and more convenient ways to flag abusive posts and erase offensive contents. These steps were taken by the company to "make Twitter experience safer."
"In our continuing effort to make your Twitter experience safer, we're enhancing our in-product harassment reporting and making improvements to "block"," explained Shreyas Doshi, Twitter's Director of Product Management, User Safety.
According to a statement from Doshi, Twitter will be implementing smoother and easier ways to facilitate the reporting process. The goal of the team is to create tools that are more "mobile-friendly".
The move to provide such features will simplify the process of flagging abusive Tweets and accounts, which will then be reviewed by the regulatory board. In addition, the tools will enable a third person or a person who witnessed the abuse to facilitate a report.
These tools, which were restructured to become suitable for mobile use, will also be more efficient and less technical. Those filing reports will be asked questions to determine how to handle the case.
"And to enable faster response times, we've made the first of several behind-the-scenes improvements to the tools and processes that help us review reported Tweets and accounts," the Twitter director shared.
These changes will lead to more efficient ways of handling abusive contents and offensive posts. Prior to these modifications, Twitter users who want to report or flag posts or other provocative users were required to fill out an information sheet detailing the alleged online harassment they experienced.
The effort entailed to complete the page reportedly disuaded victims from filing reports. With the updates and changes implemented on the reporting process, which now requires less information, Twitter will be able to keep track of more abusive behaviors occurring within the site more efficiently.
Twitter also upgraded its "block" feature. Users may now get new blocked accounts pages, which provide them information on the accounts they decided to "block". In addition, every account the users choose to "block" will no longer be able to access or view anything on his or her profile page.
"We'll be adding more controls and features to this page in the coming months," he announced.
