Following sustained pressure from users and consumer safety groups, Twitter has finally “restored a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources.”
“The feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, placed a banner at the top of search results for certain topics, listing contacts for support organizations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, Covid-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression,” Edward Helmore notes.
According to Reuters, Twitter scrapped off the feature this week, adding that “the removal was ordered by the social media platform’s owner, Elon Musk.” Musk however denied that the feature had been removed and described the report from Reuters as “fake news”.
Speaking with Reuters, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin said: “We have been fixing and revamping our prompts. They were just temporarily removed while we do that.”
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Consequently, Irwin reportedly reiterated that Twitter is planning to adopt an approach used by Google.
“We know these prompts are useful in many cases and just want to make sure they are functioning properly and continue to be relevant,” she said.
As Helmore observes, Twitter launched the warning prompts almost five years ago. “Some were available in more than 30 countries, according to company tweets… In a blogpost, Twitter said it was responsible for ensuring users could access and receive support on our service when they need it most,” he writes.
Monthly Twitter mentions of terms associated with self-harm had increased by more than 500 per cent every year, particularly among young users, according to a study published by Alex Goldenberg, the lead intelligence analyst at Network Contagion Research Institute.
“If this decision is emblematic of a policy change that they no longer take these issues seriously, that’s extraordinarily dangerous…It runs counter to Musk’s previous commitments to prioritize child safety,” Goldenberg told Reuters.
