Twitter announces two new tools to tackle harassment and abuse

Since March 2015, Twitter has given verified users on some devices the option of using a “quality filter” to improve the tweets they see: It’s essentially an automated moderation tool, which hides tweets that are abusive, threatening or spammy. Alongside this feature, the company is also introducing a quality filter.

The feature, which was first released in 2015 but only available to verified users, works nearly like a protective bubble - blocking messages from unfamiliar accounts.

What it won’t do is stop the abuse from actually happening in the first place-just make it easier for the target to avoid seeing it.

Many people have been victimized over Twitter, a social network that allows users to write posts that are no more than 140 characters in length. Which is ideal for Twitter, since it can’t really afford to lose anyone. The filter will screen incoming tweets based on “a variety of signals, such as account origin and behavior”. Similarly, you’ll get notifications from people you follow or people you’ve recently interacted with.

This won’t necessarily keep abusive tweets off Twitter, but it could help hide them from the people they are meant to hurt.

We asked Twitter for more insight into the new features, including how it envisions them helping combat trolling and abuse, but were told the company has nothing to share beyond today’s blog post. That includes messages from accounts with which you debated or argued. This filter won’t affect your timeline as you’ve chosen to follow the people who appear in your timeline. Twitter later called the piece “unfair” but acknowledged that the site still had “a lot of work to do”.