Twitter’s bullying problem is no secret and the company is now making user safety a top priority.

On March 24, a “quality filter” setting became available to certain verified users which removes all tweets from your notifications that are sent from suspicious accounts or contain threats, abusive language or content otherwise deemed inappropriate. This feature, in addition to an increased safety staff and improvements to the harassment reporting process, indicates Twitter’s new focus of rehabilitating its image.

A Twitter clean-up is a wise business decision if the company hopes to regain the momentum it had just a couple years ago and remain a social media heavyweight.

Twitter’s war against abusive behavior is a response to the many incidents that have occurred over the past year. In January, feminist blogger Anita Sarkeesian reported over 150 abusive tweets that she received during the controversial “Gamergate” movement in which female tweeters were subject to violent threats. Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late comedian Robin Williams, deleted her account due to insensitive comments and images she received following the death of her father. Even the Founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, received threats from the Islamic State group for blocking the accounts of their supporters.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo wrote an email to employees reiterating that he accepts full responsibility for the current state of user safety and will no longer stand for trolling. “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years,” Costolo wrote in the email obtained by The Verge on Feb. 4. “We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day.”

Twitter, the platform that launched in 2006, got off to a historically hot start but its user growth rates have seemed to plateau as of late.

The company recorded a growth of only 4 million users in the final quarter of last year compared to the 9 million user growth in Quarter 4 of 2013, according to a Feb. 5 CNET article. The increase of 4 million monthly users fell short of the 11 million user growth projection by Wall Street analysts.

Twitter prides itself on free speech, but the social network reached a point where changes need to be made in order to protect the dignity and value of the company.

In addition to the quality filtering feature, Twitter has tripled its number of staff reviewing spam and abuse reports. In December, the service released an improved system for reporting harassment and says it now receives five times as many abuse reports than it did six months ago. Twitter has also implemented a feature for reporting “doxing,” the act of sharing someone’s personal information online, and will also track the phone numbers of abusive users.

Twitter faces a new age of fast-paced, real-time content sharing and should be applauded for placing an emphasis on ridding negativity from its platform. It is extremely hard to monitor everything, but these improvements are a strong first step in returning Twitter to the safe and respected community it once was.

These changes won’t spell the end for online harassment but they are a good start. If nothing else, Twitter’s safety changes should serve as a reminder to think before you tweet.

Aarick Knighton is a junior information management and technology major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at adknight@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @aarickurban.

Published on March 31, 2015 at 11:44 pm