Social media sites brewing toxic culture
Twitter has sought help of users to track manipulation through bots
We love instant, public, global messaging and conversation. It’s what twitter is and it’s why we’re here. But we did not fully predict or understand the real world negative consequences. We acknowledge that now and are determined to find holistic and fair solutions. - JACK DORSEY, Twitter CEO We often come across messages like SOS on health or accident or requesting funds. If the posts are very abusive, we block such profiles. It is like what is not allowed offline, won’t be allowed online. - Mr Dileep Konatham, director of Digital Media, IT department
Social media coordinators are asked not to retaliate in a way that will make such people feel ashamed and show the page in a bad light.
It is not just people, even social media giants like Twitter and Facebook are realising that their platforms are not empowering but are becoming toxic.
After Facebook recently launched a campaign to make sure that meaningful interactions take place, Twitter also announced that it sought help from people to measure the health of conversations on its platform.
While Facebook says it will be promoting posts which allow people to talk more, Twitter doesn’t know how to address the issues of abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns and increasingly divisive echo chambers. So it is seeking the help of users to track such things by submitting proposals.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted recently that they did not fully predict or understand the real-world negative consequences of the platform. But identifying the right way to measure health is only half of the problem; how to actually implement is a question to be answered, said experts.
Currently, users mute those who abuse or spam or troll or are manipulators. They block people who use vulgar language. Kiran Chandra, former IT cell coordinator of the Bharatiya Janata Party, said, “We often pay no heed to people who use abusive language on our pages. People with prefix mindset are not giving constructive feedback but just come for a fall out (sic).”
The IT department of the Telangana government, which handles several profiles also tends to ignore or block people sending hate messages or abuse.
Social media coordinators are asked not to retaliate in a way that will make such people feel ashamed and show the page in a bad light. But ignoring them or blocking them is not going to stop Twitter or Facebook to stop being themselves. Experts say that any measure taken by the social media giants ultimately dials down to using more of these platforms and more time being spent. Because they were built to create likeminded communities where people will stay and talk and pay full attention. Once the user’s attention is on the platform, the companies will be able to get better revenue by selling it to the advertisers.