Twitter has taken another attempt at protecting its users from online threats and harassment and has rolled out a new quality filter that makes it easier to hide offensive notifications. In addition, the micro-blogging site allows users to choose to limit their notifications to only those they follow.
A new feature to protect users from harassment
Twitter will now let its users block notifications for “low quality tweets” or tweets that seem to be automated. By using signals like behavior and account origin, the new rollout by the San Francisco-based company determines low-quality content. As of now, only verified accounts which belonged to public figures and are denoted with a blue checkmark by their names have the option of filtering out “low quality” tweets.
Last month in another move to reduce harassment, the micro-blogging site said it was taking applications for verifications to open the feature to more people. However, some users reported that they were still having trouble getting verified.
An attorney and former CEO of Reddit, Ellan Pao, tweeted an e-mail from the San-Francisco-based company denying her request to be verified.
Pao tweeted on Aug 18, “Thanks, @twitter. I guess I’ll just keep filing reports that you ignore.”
Later she tweeted that she had been verified, but she got no explanation for the problems from the social media platform.
Filtering notifications can be quite useful for blocking targeted harassment. Users have long censured the micro-blogging site for not being able to do so. A critical report by Buzz Feed accused the micro-blogging giant of a lack of action in the case of abuse.
A rare Sell for Twitter
On Thursday, shares of the micro-blogging giant dropped sharply after the stock was downgraded to a rare Sell rating from Hold by Evercore ISI. Analyst Ken Sena said he turned bearish on the stock as the social network appears to be adding broadcasting capabilities as a method of turning its luck. Other social media platforms are using broadcasting and other innovations more successfully already, and they are attracting more advertisers and users, says Sen.
“We see more risk than reward, particularly ahead of Snapchat’s anticipated monetization ramp this fall,” Sena noted.
Only 29 of the 665 or 4.4% of the companies covered by Evercore ISI analysts have Sell ratings.
Recently Twitter declared a deal to live-stream National Football League games on its platform. Also there are rumors that the micro-blogging giant is in talks with Apple to put a Twitter app on Apple TV. The micro-blogging site also added Moments, which curates videos and tweets around a topic and nonlinear timelines. However, the analyst believes these measures trail the efforts from companies such as Snapchat.