User moderation set to be an important part of Twitter’s future

April 18, 2019

Twitter has been blamed for all manner of society’s ills. At a recent TED conference, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was challenged on why the changes being made to combat abuse and misinformation on the platform, haven’t been more rapid. Interviewer Chris Anderson likens Dorsey to the captain of the Titanic and stated that “It’s democracy at stake, it’s our culture at stake”.

This pressure to make positive changes isn’t new to Twitter, and there are steps planned to make a difference. One of those small steps, which is set to launch in June, is a ‘Hide Replies’ feature.

Twitter says this feature is an experiment that could be removed, underscoring the fact that this platform and social media as a whole, is still so new, that it’s impossible to predict the consequence of any new tool.

By giving users the option to hide replies, rather than promoting enlightened discussion, it could very well be used to silence those that don’t agree with you or contribute fact-checking comments.

The intention of hidden replies is to take away the voice of those that make hateful remarks. And now, the original poster of the tweet can simply hide malicious comments.

These small steps are important and taking them slowly means they don’t make too big a mistake that could have a greater negative impact on society. The pace of change isn’t rapid, but it is considered and that’s better than charging forward without due caution.

Latest Posts

Design and disability are so often discussed in terms of basic “accommodation” and “access,” yet my visit to the V&A’s Design and Disability exhibition completely shifted that perspective. Rather than framing disability as an issue to be fixed, the exhibition presents it as a culture, a rich set of identities, and a radical design force shaping practice from the 1940s right up to today.

Lurkers are your biggest audience and they’re deciding in silence. They watch in feeds, sanity-check you in comments, communities and reviews, then repeat whatever proof is easiest to quote internally. That’s why social feels harder, it’s no longer a click machine, it’s an answer surface. Ofcom shows AI summaries are now common in search results, and YouTube remains the UK’s biggest social utility by reach and time spent. If your story is inconsistent, your evidence is scattered, or your customer proof is buried, lurkers can’t do the job of trusting you for you.

Pinterest has rolled out a brand-new Media Planner inside its advertising tools, and it’s designed to make planning and managing Pin campaigns a whole lot simpler. In short? It gives you a clearer view of what you’re running, who you’re targeting, and what results you can expect…