Twitter prepares curbs on hate speech
June 27, 2012 3:55 pm
By Tim Bradshaw in New
York
Twitter is preparing to
introduce new measures to reduce the visibility of “hate speech” or “trolling”
on the site.
But management faces a
struggle to balance some Twitter users’ desire for anonymity and free speech –
such as contributed to the Arab Spring protests – with the wish of others to be
protected against abuse.
Talking to the FT this
week, Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief executive, became visibly emotional as he
described his frustration in tackling the problem of “horrifying” abuse while
maintaining the company’s mantra that “tweets must flow”.
One technical approach
Twitter is considering would hide from users’ page of replies any tweets
directed at them by individuals who are not seen as “authoritative”, because
they have no followers, no biographical information and no profile picture.
But the company’s
management is also painfully aware that this could diminish open exchange on
the site and undermine Twitter’s long-held commitment to free speech.
People may also as a
result miss the “beautiful serendipity” of a fan who joins Twitter just to show
their support for a sportsperson or celebrity, Mr Costolo said.
“The reason we want to
allow pseudonyms is there are lots of places in the world where it’s the only
way you’d be able to speak freely,” he said.
“The flipside of that is
it also emboldens these trolls ... how do you make sure you are both
emboldening people to speak politically but making it OK to be on the platform
and not endure all this hate speech? It’s very frustrating.”
After the celebrated use
of Twitter and other social networks by protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other
countries to marshal movements against repressive regimes, the Middle East has
become one of the site’s fastest-growing regions.
But at the same time,
online abuse of celebrities and bullying on social networks has become a more
prominent issue in other markets, with a number of recent court cases in the UK
prompting the government to propose tackling “trolling” through its new
defamation bill.
Twitter faces this issue
at a time when the site is transforming itself from a primarily text-messaging
service to an open platform that encompasses richer media content.
“What you’ll see us do
more and more as a platform is allow third parties to build into Twitter,” Mr
Costolo said, explaining that each tweet can become “a caption for some kind of
canvas”.
Twitter’s platform today
still falls short of the sophisticated applications developers can build in
Facebook, a feature increasingly demanded by advertisers. But the site is
opening up new ways for other companies to create richer experiences within the
tweets themselves, Mr Costolo said.
For example, Twitter has
recently introduced “expanded tweets”, which show headlines and photos from a
news story when a user shares a link. It also added the ability to watch
YouTube videos without leaving its site.
In future, tweets could
incorporate polls or quizzes, while the British band Blur will next month debut
new songs in a short concert video streamed on Twitter.
Third parties also have a
role to play in making sense of the cacophony of noise that often erupts around
live events, when Twitter’s open, real-time nature comes into its own.
Earlier this month,
Twitter joined with Nascar, the motor racing event, to create a page of the
most interesting tweets from drivers, fans, reporters and sponsors around the
race, selected by a dozen Twitter employees.
But Mr Costolo insists
that Twitter does not want to compete with traditional media companies. “I
think that Twitter is increasingly breaking the news, but I don’t think of us
as a news organisation because we don’t and won’t employ journalists,” he said.
“There will be some events where we will partner with existing media
companies.”
Other media or events
companies will be able to create a “hashtag” page highlighting the best tweets,
as Twitter itself did with Nascar, he said, whether for a live TV show or
individual conferences.
“I don’t want us to be in
the business of doing all that ourselves – it’s not scaleable.”
Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2012
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