Twitter has outlined new steps aimed at curbing the spike in abusive tweets and Twitter accounts that have plagued the site in recent years, particularly during an election cycle that produced a surge in white supremacist and so-called alt-right accounts.
The social media company has been criticized for taking a passive stance on the issue. But the new steps, announced Tuesday, combined with the site’s move to suspend several accounts of high-profile alt-right users, seemed to mark a step toward greater censorship of the extremist accounts.
Twitter’s plan to limit abusive and hateful content includes an updated policy that allows users to report such content even if it targets other users. It also plans to expand the “mute” feature — which allows users to remove an account’s tweets from their timeline without blocking the account — to include keywords, phrases and conversations.
But, as Twitter acknowledged on its blog, the new steps will not “suddenly remove abusive conduct from Twitter.” In fact, about 12 hours after Twitter published the announcement, Los-Angeles based writer and musician Ariana Lenarsky posted a screenshot of an ad on her timeline promoted by a now-suspended account that represents a neo-Nazi website called The New Order.
The ad links to an article on The New Order’s website titled The United States Was Founded as a White People’s Republic, followed by the hashtag #WhiteAmerica.
The promotion violated Twitter’s ad policy, which “prohibits the promotion of hate content, sensitive topics, and violence globally.” It was removed.
Twitter has searched for options to combat its declining stock prices and sluggish user growth, but investors, including Disney, have expressed skepticism that has been linked to Twitter’s lenient approach to abuse and harassment.
Lenarsky responded to Dorsey’s apology on Thursday, calling for people to continue holding Twitter accountable for filtering its promotions.