Twitter To Roll Out New Filters To Block Threats, Harassments

First Posted: Aug 20, 2016 05:49 AM EDT

Twitter is taking another step at protecting its users from online bullies by rolling out quality filter and making it possible to hide offensive notifications.

USA Today noted that the social media giant is said to allow all users to block notifications for "low-quality" tweets, including those that appear to be automated. The service determines the low quality content of these tweets based on signals from account origins and behavior.

Twitter Rolls Out Abuse Filters https://t.co/KqWjqvwOD8 pic.twitter.com/lcsPldxoYk

— chorus.fm (@chorusfm) August 18, 2016

Other new features that the company is rolling out includes a filter that allows their users to limit notifications only from people they follow -- which, until now, was only used by verified accounts. These accounts are those that belonged to public figures with the blue checkmark by their names.

This is not their first move to limit harassment. Last month, Twitter said that it is taking applications for verification for more users, but some still reported trouble getting verified, including Ellen Pao, the former CEO of Reddit. When she tweeted the denial of her request, the company then had her verified, albeit without explanation.

Filter for notifications can be helpful for blocking targeted harassment, and it seems that Twitter has failed its users miserably. Still, as The Ringer noted, the new tool is hardly the first "quality filter" in social media, and so far, none of them had been perfect. No internet filter is simple, and right now Twitter has been struggling with the issue. However, as the site noted, even Twitter's efforts could be irrelevant -- the only way it can stay up to speed is if it can adapt its filter as fast as the community adopts certain languages and practices -- which, as most know by now, it pretty fast.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo did admit that he is not happy with the way the company handles harassment and abuse. He said via a memo last year, “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years."