Dorsey takes steps to fix Twitter’s character

Twitter just admitted it’s become a swamp for toxic talk.

Chief Executive Jack Dorsey (left) tweetstormed a plea for ways to make the social network a nicer place by measuring “collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation.”

The company co-founder also said Twitter accepted responsibility for inadvertently helping to spread misinformation, harassment and manipulation via bots. He asked the public to propose solutions and, in an accompanying blog, cited work in this area by nonprofit Cortico.

“We have witnessed abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns, and increasingly divisive echo chambers,” Dorsey tweeted. “We aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough.”

Twitter, like other social media platforms, has come under fire for being a place for rancorous and toxic conversations.

In addition to removing abuse and spam, the company is broadening its scope to examine how it’s enabling public conversation. In November, Twitter halted its verification system, calling it “broken” after the process became seen as a stamp of approval for trolls, white supremacists and others disseminating hateful speech online.

The changes come as tech companies face a backlash over the negative impact some critics say they have on society. Late last year, Facebook even cited research indicating that social media can be bad for mental health. In addition to proliferating propaganda and fake news, Twitter has been criticized for not doing enough to prevent abuse and harassment. Many women have been driven off Twitter by vicious trolls.

Twitter has also been dealing with the congressional investigation into how social-media services like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were manipulated during the election. Twitter has come under intense scrutiny for being ill-prepared to address the magnitude of the situation.

Dorsey’s plea for proposals is the latest effort by Twitter to address the problems.