Twitter is now rolling out several tools to help combat online harassment, simplifying the steps users have to take to report abusive behavior on the social network.
The changes also give users more ways of describing the harassment that is taking place, including violent threats, name-calling and so on.
"We're improving the reporting process to make it much more mobile-friendly, require less initial information and, overall, make it simpler to flag tweets and accounts for review," said the social media network in a blog post. "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."
Twitter has introduced a "blocked accounts" page for users to be able to easily see who has been blocked from their feed. It also makes it easier for users to unblock someone in case their disagreement has been sorted out, and it provides an easy place to report abuse.
Previously, if users wanted to report abuse from someone they had blocked they had to remember the individual's username, which is not always easy, especially if the user is one of a group of users being abusive.
According to the social media network, the new tools are a starting point for cracking down on online abuse, and it indicated the tools will evolve over time.
"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," continued the company. "We'll continue to work hard on these changes in order to improve the experience of people who encounter abuse on Twitter."
The news comes almost a month after the social media company announced that Women, Action and the Media, or WAM, would be handling reports of sexism on the network. Many users suggested that Twitter should simply handle the problem in-house rather than outsourcing it to unpaid volunteers, and it seems as though the company is now starting to take matters into its own hands.
It is unlikely that Twitter will be able to remove bullying and harassment on the social media network completely, but it's nice that it's finally making a bit more of an effort. With around 500 million messages posted on Twitter per day it will be hard to keep up with everything.
