Twitter wants to make it more obvious when a tweet is in breach of its Twitter rules. As a result, it is introducing a small interface tweak to make it more transparent when a tweet has been taken down.
In a new blog post, the company notes how “violators” of these rules must delete their own offending tweet before they are able to post again. While this has always been the case, now it’s making a more concerted effort to let people know that these rules have been broken. It writes that:
“Now, once we’ve required a Tweet to be deleted, we will display a notice stating that the Tweet is unavailable because it violated the Twitter Rules along with a link to the Rules and an article that provides more detail on how we enforce our rules. This notice will be displayed on both the account’s profile and the specific Tweet for 14 days after the Tweet is deleted.”
In addition, reported tweets will immediately be hidden to the person who reported it. Although they still have the option of reading it, this will only happen if they tap a notice to view it.
Efforts such as this are an attempt to make Twitter a more welcoming, inclusive place for people (well, people posting the right things at least.) While social media platforms like Facebook have been blasted for helping spread fake news, Twitter has frequently been singled out as a platform where harassment is rife. By taking steps to improve the reporting process — and making it a bit more transparent at the same time — hopefully some of that can change.
The changes will appear on both Twitter.com and the Twitter app, and will roll out over the coming weeks.
