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Twitter Is Working On Anti-Harassment Keyword Filtering Tool, Says Report (bloomberg.com) 204

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has made it a top priority for company to limit hateful conduct. In late December 2015, for example, the company changed its rules to explicitly ban "hateful conduct" for the first time. A new report says Twitter is working to further curb the rise of hateful conduct as it is "working on a keyword-based tool that will let people filter the posts they see, giving users a more effective way to block out harassing and offensive tweets." Bloomberg reports: "The San Francisco-based company has been discussing how to implement the tool for about a year as it seeks to stem abuse on the site, said the people [familiar with the matter], who asked not to be identified because the initiative isn't public. By using keywords, users could block swear words or racial slurs, for example, to screen out offenders. The filtering tool could eventually become a moderator for any kind of content, the people said. For example, users could block a hashtag about an event they don't care to read about."
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Twitter Is Working On Anti-Harassment Keyword Filtering Tool, Says Report

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26, 2016 @08:49PM (#52778863)

    I bet all the keywords will be carefully chosen to avoid hitting political allies like the social justice nutters.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26, 2016 @08:52PM (#52778875)

    The problem for Twitter is there just aren't enough Feminists/SJWs out there to keep a dying social media platform alive.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by quantaman ( 517394 )

      The problem for Twitter is there just aren't enough Feminists/SJWs out there to keep a dying social media platform alive.

      So is the only draw of Twitter the opportunity to harass Feminists/SJWs?

      Because that's the only piece of functionality you'll actually lose with these changes.

      If you're harassing someone and they don't want to hear you anymore that's not "Feminist/SJW" talk, that's just common sense.

      • Thank you for demonstrating exactly what we're all talking about. Thoughtcrime is "harassment", disagreement is "threatening".

      • Considering that SJWs consider everything that disagrees with them as "harassment", you lose a lot more. You lose the main function of Twitter: The exchange of expressions of opinions.

        Twitter could have been the proverbial "marketplace of ideas", where people can offer their point of view and by approval and disapproval we could have seen the true opinions of people visiting, unblemished and unencumbered by peer pressure, due to the general anonymity of the medium. Yes, that does mean that you get to see th

        • Considering that SJWs consider everything that disagrees with them as "harassment", you lose a lot more. You lose the main function of Twitter: The exchange of expressions of opinions

          Ah yes. The exchange of opinions. Like, you know, for example, libel. I'm sure it was Milo's opinion that Leslie Jones said that stuff even though she didn't.
           

          • I would tread lightly on the whole Ghostbusters blunder if I tried to argue FOR the SJW side. Remind me, who was it again that labeled (or "libeled" rather) everyone who dared to not think this turd is going to be Oscar material a misogynist or worse? Just for disagreeing.

            There were very valid, well worded and well argued points that were brought against this movie, with Jones' portrait of the black ghetto mama from da hood as a racist stereotype being not even the worst offense against good taste this movi

            • Are you denying that Milo propagating fake tweets is libel our are you trying to justify it on the grounds that two wrongs make a right?

              Or, do you simply consider libel to be part of an honest exchange of opinions?

              • I don't give a shit about that professional inciter. SJWs do. And that's basically all that makes him relevant in any way, that's his gimmick. That guy simply noticed that pushing trigger buttons he can get a huge reaction, and by broadcasting it, he gains followers who are entertained by people going apeshit over perceived slights. That's basically all there is behind that Milo guy. He's only relevant because SJWs make him relevant. If they simply went "tsk, buzz off, fag", he's have vanished into oblivion

                • SJWs do.

                  And all his numerous fans. Are they all SJWs too? Or are you just ignoring them for some reason?

                  Disagreeing with someone and making an argument is not harassment.

                  Disagreeing with someone isn't a fish either. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

                  Allow me to point at the short YouTube announcement James Rolfe made concerning him not going to watch the movie.

                  Ugh videos. Must I?

                  OK, I'm 2:55 in and I already feel like the guy is a grade A prat. No, youngsters don't have an obligation to see the

                  • Milo's fans are his fans for exactly the reason that he manages to get SJWs to go apeshit. He himself isn't that terribly interesting.

                    As for that other guy, yes. That video isn't too interesting. It is just some random guy saying he's not going to watch the movie. He has a medium sized number of people subbed to his channel, nothing that would make or break a movie. We're not talking about Roger Ebert by any means, and yet people went mental about his announcement of not watching the movie, calling him miso

                    • He stated his opinion, I think even without mentioning that it's an "all female" Ghostbusters team,

                      He calls it "the female Ghostbusters". But whatever, I don't really care.

                      That was enough for some people to start the name calling.

                      So? You claimed that people think his opinion is harassment. That's not the same as general name calling. You seem to be engaging in your usual tactic of inventing a wild, ludicrous and unprovable claim, then when being called on it, watering it down and pointing to other things pe

                    • He calls it the "female Ghostbusters" because that is what it is being called by various people on the internet, and he uses it as a way to show how calling it "Ghostbusters" without an additional qualifier was not a good idea because now people make up monikers to tell it apart from the 1984 movie.

                      If you made the effort you could easily have found out, either from reading the comments to the video, by looking at the video reactions or simply by looking at the suggested watching at the side bar, that there

                    • You: He didn't refer to the all female cast.
                      Me: He called it the female ghostbusters. Whatever, I don't care.
                      You: He calls it the "female Ghostbusters" because that is...

                      I didn't care before. Why do you think I care now?

                      blah blah dodge weave blah blah blah

                      You claimed that other people said his mere opinion was harassment.

                      Basically no one said that.

                      Now put up or shut up and enough with "the truth is out there" bullshit. I'm not wading through innumerable youtube comments or reaction videos to prove a point t

        • Twitter could have been the proverbial "marketplace of ideas", where people can offer their point of view and by approval and disapproval

          It sounds like you had an interesting and considered point to make. Sadly, since you're limited to 140 characters, it got cut off. Better have simpler ideas, ones easily reducible to soundbytes, if you want to market them on Twitter.

          Twitter is awful as a marketplace of ideas, is what I'm saying. Forums like Slashdot itself are far better alternatives.

          the true opinions of

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Strange, Twitter's page views don't seem to be in decline. Reddit didn't die either.

  • Who gives a shit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26, 2016 @08:55PM (#52778883)

    What ever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me?" If someone offends you, ignore them. If you can't bear to do that, a Block option has been on Twitter forever, use that. If you're still getting triggered, maybe you should step away from the computer for awhile.

    • Helicopter parents wrapping their kids in bubblewrap that started back in the early 90's.

    • by negRo_slim ( 636783 ) <mils_orgen@hotmail.com> on Friday August 26, 2016 @09:29PM (#52779009) Homepage

      What ever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me?"

      In the Age of Feels what you speak of is now unthinkable. Just like sending your kids out to play until dark and limits on screen time, being able to handle mere words with tact is loooong gone my friend.

      • being able to handle mere words with tact is loooong gone my friend.

        It's weird how the supposed free speech advocates favourite way of advocating free speech is to try to convince everyone how unimportant and inconsequential speech is. If speech is of no worth, it's not worth protecting. The entire reason for protecting it is precisely because it is important.

        And no, being an asshole on a private platform is not protected free speech in any legal, ethical or moral way.

    • What ever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me?"

      What happened was it is and always was obvious bullshit. Let me counter with another trite saying: the pen is mightier than the sword. If speech is inconsequential, then there's no need to fight hard to keep it free, because you'd lose nothing of consequence.

      If someone offends you, ignore them.

      That's exactly what this is about.

      If you can't bear to do that, a Block option has been on Twitter forever, use that.

      No it hasn

      • No. What this is about is not ignoring them. It is essentialy putting tape over their mouths because you dont like what they say. Totaly different than ignoring them.

        Yes words can hurt, it is the sign of a healthy adult that they can let it go and know they are just words.
        It is NOT the sign of a healthy adult mind to want to duct tape someones mouth because you dont like what they say and only remove it when they want to say something you like.

        • That's rubbish. Allowing people to filter you out of their feed is not equivalent to gagging you. You have no right, mitral or otherwise to make people listen to you or force them away if they don't want to. If you interrupt a conversation I'm having in public with someone else, me telling you to eff off isn't gagging you either. You have no right to be listened to.

          And here's the thing, if words are "just words" and of little consequence, why bother defending the right to use them freely. You cannot have it

          • by Izuzan ( 2620111 )

            That depends entirely if it is a selectable option or not. If you can ignore someone and not see their posts thats fine as long as I can see them.

            If it is a blanket setting that looks at what is being said and deletes the post as it is being posted so NO ONE can see it. That my little friend is censorship and is deplorable.

    • "If someone offends you, ignore them."

      That's exactly what such a tool would allow you to do. It just allows a user to automate the process of avoiding post by racist/bigot dipshits.

  • Not a typo. It's sad how long it's taking social media to even get to what we had in the Usenet days.

    Rob

  • by jafiwam ( 310805 ) on Friday August 26, 2016 @09:21PM (#52778989) Homepage Journal
    Well? Does it?
  • We need a new poll. Now that Twitter is just about done, where should I go? I jumped on Twitter years ago as my news "firehouse". Over the years it's morphed - my feed that is - into a pretty narrow view of the world. Time to move on because this isn't healthy!

    • by geek ( 5680 )

      We need a new poll. Now that Twitter is just about done, where should I go? I jumped on Twitter years ago as my news "firehouse". Over the years it's morphed - my feed that is - into a pretty narrow view of the world. Time to move on because this isn't healthy!

      There's a new company in beta trying to replace twitter https://gab.ai/ [gab.ai] haven't used it so far but they've committed themselves to free speech. That said, they are a Russian outfit so take it with a grain of salt.

  • Facebook provides an example of how these filters will work:

    http://www.naturalnews.com/055... [naturalnews.com]

  • by pauljlucas ( 529435 ) on Saturday August 27, 2016 @12:00AM (#52779453) Homepage Journal
    One way to fix Twitter would simply be to eliminate mentions and messaging. IMHO, the use-case for Twitter is to allow people to receive broadcast (one-way) messages from others.

    For example, if I follow Bob, then I (and everyone else who follows Bob) would receive Bob's tweets. If EvilJerk also follows Bob, he can be as outraged and tweet about it as much as he wants -- nobody except those who opted-in to follow EvilJerk would get his tweets.

    Problem solved.

  • As has been said before, "Twitter is the confetti of the internet".

    I'm too long-winded to use Twitter; it takes me more than 140 characters to say "Good morning". :)

    Frankly, the vast majority of what I've seen on Twitter is self-referential "look at me!" stuff.

    It's not micro-blogging, it's micro-bragging. "Look at my amazing coffee/breakfast/sandwich/shoes/tattoo"....etc etc etc.

    It's not for me, but if people want to use it, then great- have at it.

  • It won't work, because https://www.google.com/maps/pl... [google.com]
  • Otherwise, besides the obvious politics stuff, i can see funny things like for example AMD,ARM and PEPSI becoming "racial slurs".

  • all the fun people go to other social media for their fun.
    If every creative word gets instant corrected or another new word suggested are you really free anymore?
    When even using the basic text input interface of a site gets dragged into a mess of guidelines policy, why stay?
    Under new rules censorship flourishes...

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