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| A Reuters report says that Twitter has brought back the suicide prevention feature |
Under pressure from some user and consumer protection groups, Twitter has reintroduced a key feature that highlights users looking for specific suicide hotlines and other safety resources and calls for their removal.
Reuters reported on Friday that the feature was removed days ago, citing two people familiar with the matter who said the platform's owner and CEO Elon Musk had ordered the feature's removal.
Following Reuters' report, Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Owen, confirmed the removal, calling it temporary. It also said in an email to Reuters that the platform is correcting and updating the online help users see and is not temporarily removing the feature. "We want her back next week," she added.
About 15 hours after Reuters' report, Musk (who, according to Reuters, did not initially respond to a request for comment) tweeted, "This is slander, [the trait] is still here." Stop suicide."
A feature called #ThereIsHelp displays instant advice on a specific topic at the top of search results. The topic lists contacts of aid organizations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, pedophilia, COVID-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters, and freedom of expression.
The cancellation caused some consumer groups and Twitter users to worry about the safety of vulnerable users of the platform.
It should be noted that over the years Internet services such as Twitter, Google and Facebook, under pressure from consumer advocates, have referred users to well-known information providers such as B. Government referred hotline. or danger to others.
"Google is doing a great job with these in search results, and we've reversed some of their approaches with our changes," Owen said in his email. "We know these instant cues are useful in a lot of situations, we just want to make sure they work," she added.
The disappearance of #ThereIsHelp was "very upsetting and deeply concerning," said Erliani Abdurrahman, a member of the recently departed Twitter Content Advisory Group. Even if it is removed only temporarily to make room for improvement, she said, companies can do so in the meantime rather than remove it.