An open and conversational social network sounds great on paper, but Twitter has become a notorious incubator for internet trolls. With people finding new and creative ways to flout its rules all the time, it's harder than ever for the social network to police its users.
Over the last couple of years Twitter has been making a concerted effort to clean up the site, with a particular focus on 'fake news' and abusive tweets, but it still largely relies on its users reporting tweets that break the rules.
Now Twitter has rolled out a new feature that will make the reporting process more transparent, with reported tweets being replaced with the following notice: "This tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules."
The company explained the new feature in the video below - you'll need to click the Tweet to watch it:
You don’t want to see a Tweet you’ve reported, but you do want to know we’ve done something about it. And all those Tweets that break our rules? You should know we’ve done something about them too. Here’s what these Tweets will look like now.October 17, 2018
A safer space
As well as highlighting tweets that flout the rules, Twitter will also hide tweets that you have reported, meaning they won't keep appearing in your feed - instead they will be hidden behind a notice stating "you reported this tweet".
This will likely prove an important step in making Twitter a safer space for all users, particularly if you are reporting a tweet that is upsetting or graphic - and if you do need to see the tweet again, you can tap the notice to view it.
The new feature follows a big push from the company in 2017 to reduce "hateful content and abusive behavior", as well as improving its appeals system to ensure that users are not unfairly penalized for tweets incorrectly flagged as breaking the rules.
