Jon Erlichman

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Twitter is rolling out new tools to more effectively address user abuse. The updates will enable users to mute notifications tied to specific words and conversations seen as representing hateful conduct.

“Language and expression is central to the Twitter experience and our new mute tools will provide the people of Twitter with more control over the conversations they engage in,” Jennifer Hollett, Twitter Canada’s head of news and government, told BNN in a statement.

Users will now have the ability to change their settings to mute notifications when someone responds to a tweet using words, phrases, hashtags, emojis and usernames they consider offensive. Those reactionary tweets will not be removed from the user’s timeline, but they will no longer show up in the notifications tab or any SMS or email notifications. Additionally, users can mute larger conversations, enabling them to opt out of dialogues considered to be abusive (although tweets from the conversation will still show up in the user’s timeline)

“Beyond our existing safety tools that allow users to block or report those they wish not to engage with, we recognize that there may be certain terms and topics they never want to see on Twitter,” Hollett said in the statement. “By allowing users to mute these outright, we are creating a platform that provides a better experience and more control overall."

HIGH PROFILE COMMENTARY

Twitter has increasingly come under fire for hateful commentary by trolls. In one high-profile example, 'Ghostbusters' star Leslie Jones quit Twitter in July, citing a barrage of sexist and racist tweets. Jones quickly rejoined, after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped in to address the concerns. 

Walt Disney Co. also reportedly decided against pursuing an acquisition of Twitter because of hate speech and abuse that is sometimes seen on the social media platform. 

“It seems to me that there are two big priorities for Twitter,” said Greylock Partners’ Josh Elman, who previously led Twitter’s product team, in a recent interview with BNN. “One, making it so that all of the people who are still interested in trying Twitter get to a good, personalized experience faster. And, two, that those who are already on Twitter have a safer experience, given some of the negativity.”

The Twitter changes come exactly one week after the U.S. presidential election. Users in the U.S. have sent more than 1 billion tweets about the election since the primary debates began in August of last year. "That conversation volume is massively higher than it was in the past,” Twitter Canada Head Rory Capern told BNN in a recent television interview.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has amassed an army of trolls who defend his every move, now has more than 15 million followers on Twitter. That's up from 2.6 million when he first announced his presidential bid. 

Twitter itself ended its third quarter with 317 million monthly active users, up from 307 million in the same period a year earlier. In the face of slower revenue growth, it announced it would be cutting another 350 jobs, or roughly 9 per cent of its global workforce. Many of the layoffs are tied to Twitter’s sales and marketing team.

Last week, Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain, who had been in charge of the company’s revenue business, announced he was leaving the company. 

Twitter shares rallied on Monday, after activist investor Jana Partners disclosed it now owns 2.9 million of the company's shares.