abuse
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Instagram gives businesses tools to keep comments in check
Instagram has updated its API and is giving businesses access to content metrics as well as new tools for managing comments. Now, through the API, businesses can turn comments on and off as well as hide them. Business accounts already had access to these sorts of features already, but this is the first time Instagram has given them the ability use those features through their marketing dashboards. These changes are additional steps in Instagram's commitment to foster a safer community and follow last month's announcement that the site would begin using AI to root out and block offensive comments.
Twitter says its safety updates are stamping out abuse
It's safe to say Twitter had an awful 2016. Yet amidst all its turmoil, its abuse problem trumped all others. To make matters worse, the company's convoluted approach to cleaning up its site left even its most ardent users bemused. Then, at the onset of this year, Twitter promised a more proactive stance. A slew of updates followed, including a bunch of muting and filtering tools. Now, at the halfway stage of 2017, it claims the changes are working.
Twitter adds more mute options to help filter out abuse
Twitter has added a few new options to its filter settings. Now you'll be able to disable notifications from accounts that you don't follow that are new, or don't follow you or just accounts you don't follow altogether. These additions follow a handful of others meant to help you keep out content that you don't want to see.
Parents lose custody of two kids after abusive YouTube 'pranks'
Once again, what you do online can have devastating real-world consequences. The latest example of that is Heather and Mike Martin, who recently lost custody of two of their five children after the videos on their YouTube channel caught the public eye. The Martins regularly played cruel "pranks" on their kids with a camera rolling, uploading footage at a steady pace and amassing over 760,000 subscribers in the process, the Washington Post reports.
Facebook helps you prevent the spread of revenge porn
Revenge porn is difficult to fight. Even if you successfully get the photos pulled, it's all too easy for someone with local copies to upload them again. Facebook thinks it can help. The social network is launching tools designed to keep revenge porn offline and prevent an already bad situation from getting worse. You can report photos shared without permission, of course, and Facebook will both remove them and (typically) disable the accounts that posted them. However, the most important part is what follows next: Facebook uses photo matching to prevent people from sharing the shots again, including on Instagram and Messenger. You won't have to constantly police Facebook to make sure the images stay down.
Twitter's next anti-abuse measure cordons off 'offensive' profiles
Twitter is taking another step toward curtailing abuse on the platform. But, it seems like the microblogging service is being a tad overzealous. Now, rather than just marking certain attached media as potentially offensive, it's doing so for entire profiles. Mashable first noticed it with tech analyst Justin Warren's profile. Everything was greyed out (header and profile pictures included) with a message reading:
Twitter offers more controls for muting abusers
Twitter's attempt at automatically fighting abuse hasn't worked flawlessly. However, you might not mind the missteps quite so much now that it's implementing some (arguably overdue) improvements to both mute controls and abuse report feedback in its mobile apps. You can now mute people based on account types, including those with unverified email addresses, unverified phone numbers and even default avatars -- finally, there's an official way to mute those notorious egg accounts trolls like to use. Twitter is also building on its previous mute upgrades by giving you options to mute both directly from your main timeline and to specify how long a mute lasts, whether it's permanent or just for a short while. This time-based muting isn't completely new (Tweetbot says hi), but it'll still be helpful if you want to avoid a nasty discussion for a day.
Twitter starts temporarily restricting abusive accounts
In a bid to stop trolling and online harassment, Twitter has now begun to reduce the reach of abusive accounts. The social media site's new vetting system temporarily restricts the tweets of abusive users, making them effectively invisible to those who don't already follow them. As well as stopping them being retweeted outside of their inner circle, this measure also works with mentions too. If the offending user tries to tweet at someone who isn't following them, for example, the intended receiver now won't get any notifications.
Twitter briefly stops notifying people when they're on lists
Twitter just made a big (if momentary) blunder when it comes to fighting abuse. The social network briefly stopped providing notifications whenever someone adds you to a list, ostensibly to make sure you only see the "notifications that matter." However, it quickly backtracked when users pointed out that this only made harassment easier. Hate groups could build their hit lists in secret, leaving targets woefully unaware until the threatening tweets were already on the way.
Twitter will soon filter out abusive replies to tweets
Twitter is delivering three new tools to help battle abusive users just one week after admitting it hasn't moved fast enough to curb rampant harassment taking place on the platform. In a blog post published this morning, VP of engineering Ed Ho announced three new features that'll be on Twitter soon. Perhaps the most immediately useful is a filter that hides "abusive or low-quality" tweets by default. It sounds similar to the "quality filter" that tries to remove trolls from your @ mentions.
Twitter admits 'didn't move fast enough' on abuse, changes coming
After years of hearing users cry out about the abuse on its platform and reacting in ways that may have made its problems even worse, Twitter says it's listening. VP of engineering Ed Ho tweeted tonight that "We heard you, we didn't move fast enough last year...We'll be rolling out a number of product changes in the days ahead." Also asserting that changes will continue until there is an impact people can feel, Ho was backed up by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeting that "We're taking a completely new approach to abuse on Twitter. Including having a more open & real-time dialogue about it every step of the way," and recently-added VP of product Keith Coleman.
Twitter suspends Martin Shkreli for harassment
Martin Shkreli is, to put it mildly, one of the most loathed people on the Internet. He's primarily known for jacking up HIV drug prices purely out of greed, but he also ducked fraud questions and drew the ire of music fans for buying Wu-Tang Clan's ultra-rare album. However, he hasn't done much that would get him kicked from social media services... until now. Twitter has suspended Shkreli after he conducted a short but sustained harassment campaign against freelance reporter Lauren Duca in retaliation for criticizing Donald Trump in a Teen Vogue piece.
Twitter spent 2016 pouring gasoline on its fires
Twitter isn't a single entity, but a conglomeration of communities that use the same platform for various purposes. There's weird Twitter, political Twitter -- hell, there's even a cute animal pictures Twitter. Beyond communication in 140-character snippets, there's only one other thing that the service's disparate users can agree on: the fact that the site has failed to fix any of the fundamental problems that have dogged it for years.
Celebs ask Twitter to tackle a specific harassment case
Twitter has frequently been accused of waiting until harassment campaigns are big enough to make the news before it responds to them -- just ask Leslie Jones. And unfortunately, it looks like history might just repeat itself. Comedians Patton Oswalt, Tim Heidecker and others are calling on Twitter to take action following allegations that "alt-right" figure Mike Cernovich is conducting a sustained harassment campaign against Tim & Eric collaborator Vic Berger IV in retaliation for jokes and videos making fun of Cernovich.
Facebook debuts a 'parent portal' to stop online harassment
Even ignoring the past few months' deluge of fake news or its ongoing inability to enforce its own community guidelines, Facebook has long had a problem with harassment, trolling and other unscrupulous behavior. Children have died due to the abuse they endure on the social network. That's why Facebook on Tuesday debuted its new Parents Portal, part of the site's Safety Center, to help adults help their kids not be complete tools while online.
Instagram finally lets users disable comments on posts
In recent months, Instagram has finally stated rolling out tools that let users combat abuse. First, Instagram added the ability to block specific words from your comments, and today it is adding a host of other tools to keep trolls out of your account. The company says all the new features will be available in the coming weeks. First up is a tool that'll let you remove comments entirely from your posts. When creating a new Instagram post, you'll find an "advanced settings" menu where you can turn off comments for that image. You can also reverse course and turn commenting back on if you so choose. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like you can shut off comments globally in your account; hopefully Instagram will add that option next.
Interpol is using AI to hunt down child predators online
The FBI may have scored a big win with operation Playpen, which helped dismantle a ring of TOR-based pedophiles and prosecute its members (thanks, Rule 41), but that was just one battle in the ongoing war against the sexual exploitation of children. That fight is now a bit easier for European law enforcement, which as debuted a new machine learning AI system that hunts for child porn on P2P networks.
Twitter expands 'mute' and 'report' features to combat abuse
Twitter has such a bad troll problem that it may be the reason why Disney ultimately decided not to buy the social network. Now, even though it's probably too late to change Disney's mind, the company has enhanced a couple of features to help users get other abusive users off their backs. Over the coming days, you'll be able to mute not just people, but also keywords and phrases, usernames, emojis and hashtags to make sure nothing cruel or insulting slips into your notifications. If people keep tagging you in a conversation you want no part of, you'll be able to mute that thread to stop receiving notices, as well.
Marvel writer chased off Twitter by pathetic misogynists
A year ago, Marvel announced that the character Mockingbird would be getting her first solo series helmed by author Chelsea Cain. The book ran from March until it was cancelled this month, with the final cover prominently displaying the message "Ask Me About My Feminist Agenda." Predictably, this provoked the vile side of Twitter, and after the trolls amped up their harassment, Cain deactivated her account this morning. Once again, the social platform's failure to combat harassment allowed a vocal minority to drive away a creative voice.
UK targets doxxing, hashtags and more in online troll crackdown
Over the course of the year, the UK government has attempted to crack down internet abuse by introducing new guidelines for prosecutors and forming a new troll-hunting police unit. Those updates ensured that anyone creating websites or fake online profiles with the intention to humiliate someone could be punished, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has today added a new list of offences aimed at bringing trolls to justice.
