Twitter to roll out prompts to users to reduce hate speech on platform

Twitter announced rolling out a prompts feature on its iOS and Android apps to encourage 'healthier conversations' on the social media platform

In its blog on Wednesday, Twitter announced that it’ll be rolling out a prompts feature on its iOS and Android apps “that will encourage people to pause and reconsider a potentially harmful or offensive reply before they hit send”. This step has been taken in a bid to encourage “healthier conversations” on the social media platform.

How did the new feature come to use?

In May 2020, the social media company ran limited tests on its iOS app, in which some users were shown prompts that urged them to rethink their tweets or replies. The users were asked to check if the language was insulting, used strong language or were hateful. Then, in August 2020, these prompts were revised to include considering the context of the conversation before displaying a prompt.

Based on feedback and learning from the tests conducted last year, Twitter said prompts would be rolled out on iOS and Android apps for users who have enabled English-language settings.

Since the testing of this feature began, Twitter has made certain improvements such as consideration of the nature of the relationship between two account holders in conversation. “For example, if two accounts follow and reply to each other often, there’s a higher likelihood that they have a better understanding of the preferred tone of communication,” Twitter has said.

Through the tests, Twitter has found that 34 percent of the people revised their initial reply or decided not to send their reply at all when they were prompted that their tweet is hateful. They also found that on being prompted once, people on average composed 11 percent fewer offensive replies in the future.

Twitter also notes that when promoted, people were less likely to not just send but also receive offensive and harmful replies back.

How do social media platforms define hate speech?

There is no accurate definition of hate speech, but it is broadly understood as speech or content that calls for violence against someone or is threatening to them and is based on their race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, hate speech is, “public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence toward a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation (= the fact of being gay, etc.)”.

In March 2020 Twitter said, “…we expanded our rules against hateful conduct to include language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion.” As per their new policy against “hateful conduct”, users are discouraged from promoting, “violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”

On similar lines, Reddit’s content rules state that “Everyone has a right to use Reddit free of harassment, bullying, and threats of violence. Communities and users that incite violence or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability will be banned.”

Against hate speech, Facebook states that “We do not allow hate speech on Facebook because it creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion and in some cases may promote real-world violence.”

It goes on to add, “We define hate speech as a direct attack on people based on what we call protected characteristics — race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disease or disability.”

It isn't just social media platforms that are fighting against hate speech, international organisations such as the United Nations have also taken note of hate speech in recent times. In 2019, the UN launched the Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, which aims to provide resources to deal with hate speech, in line with international human rights and the right to freedom of opinion and expression.