Twitter announced that it is rolling out a new way to flag abusive tweets. There have been some big trolling incidents recently, including a flood of rude and cruel comments on Twitter that made Zelda Williams quit Twitter after her father, Robin Williams, commit suicide.
There will now be better tools for reporting abuse and blocking abusive Twitter users. Fewer steps will be required for people to report abuse – and in a less structured way. It will also allow users to report abusive behavior that they observe even if they are not a party to those tweets.
In addition there will be a “blocked accounts page” that users can access from the settings menu. This page shows users what accounts that they have blocked from being able to view their profile.
Twitter announced the new features on its Twitter Support account.
In a blog post Twitter said:
“These enhancements similarly improve the reporting process for those who observe abuse but aren’t receiving it directly. And to enable faster response times, we’ve made the first of several behind-the-scenes improvements to the tools and processes that help us review reported Tweets and accounts.”
“The updates are available now for a small group of users. In the coming weeks, we will roll them out to everyone.”
Adding:
“We are nowhere near being done making changes in this area. In the coming months, you can expect to see additional user controls, further improvements to reporting and new enforcement procedures for abusive accounts. We’ll continue to work hard on these changes in order to improve the experience of people who encounter abuse on Twitter.”