Twitter reverses anti-abuse update after user feedback

Twitter Vice President of Engineering Ed Ho tweeted the change was 'a misstep'

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People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture (File Photo: Reuters)
IANS New York
Last Updated : Feb 15 2017 | 12:52 PM IST
In line with its attempts to curb online abuse and harassment, Twitter has announced an update that would not notify the users when they were added to lists, but the update was soon rolled back following user feedback.

Twitter Safety account on Tuesday posted a tweet: "We want you to get notifications that matter. Starting today, you won't get notified when you are added to a list."

According to a report in Tech Crunch on Tuesday, this was an implication that being added to a user's Twitter list was inconsequential information.

But the report noted that being added to lists can also be a form of harassment in and of itself.

"That is, if you tweet something the abuser didn't like, you might find yourself added to a list with an offensive title. Because lists can also be shared, they can be used by a group who wants to barrage those on the list with regular abuse," the report said.

Following the feedback, Twitter Vice President of Engineering Ed Ho tweeted the change was "a misstep", and was being reversed.

"This was a misstep, we are reversing the change. Thank you and others for the feedback," Ed Ho tweeted.

Twitter has been rolling out updates to weed out the offensive and harassing content and make the platform safe for its users.

Recently, the micro-blogging site rolled an update that would collapse abusive or low-quality tweets as well as introduce a safer search feature where sensitive content is hidden.

The company also announced that users who are banned permanently cannot return to Twitter.

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First Published: Feb 15 2017 | 11:26 AM IST

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