By Dominic Taylor
Twitter has worked with over 60 mental health partners worldwide to raise awareness of its principles and tackle hate posts on its platform.
The social media giant continues to work hard to help break the stigma that its platform has become a medium of spreading hate.
Twitter has over the years become a powerful tool for bringing together brands and organisations, including ordinary individuals to share ideas and exchange benefits.
However, the spread of hateful and discriminatory views on twitter over the years has reduced its class and led to calls for the social media giant to develop ways to identify hateful individuals who use its platforms to spread hate.
Discriminatory and victimising tweets is against twitter’s policies, but this hasn’t stopped spiteful individuals from using its platform to spite hateful comments.
Twitter was used to spread hateful comments against women and Mps.
In 2017, Amnesty International revealed that Diane Abbott alone received almost half of all the abusive tweets sent to female MPs in the run-up to the general election, research by Amnesty International has revealed.
The former shadow home secretary had been subjected to a relentless campaign of racist and sexist abuse in the weeks before the 8 June poll. The abuse directed at her amounted to 10 times as much as was received by any other female MP, according to the Amnesty study.
Amnesty researchers found Abbott received 45% of all abusive tweets sent to female MPs in the six weeks before election day. In the previous six months, she received just under a third of all abuse sent to the same group.
The report was authored by Amnesty technology and human rights researcher Azmina Dhrodia, looked at a sample of 900,223 tweets between 1 January and 8 June, drawn from social media analysis tool Crimson Hexagon.
Black and Asian female MPs received 35% more abusive tweets than their white colleagues, even when Abbott was excluded from the total, the research found.
It excluded deleted tweets or tweets of those whose accounts had been suspended, therefore underestimating the true scale of abuse on twitter.
U.S president Donald Trump has also used the platform to deride those he detests, furthering their anxiety in the process.
Twitter also removed more than 170,000 state-linked accounts used by China, Russia and Turkey. The social media platform said the groups were Echo chambers spreading misinformation.
The U.S-based social media company said these accounts consisted of a network of echo chambers, used to push propaganda, spread misinformation or attack critics of the government.
The biggest network of these accounts was linked to China, with 23,750 that were further boosted by 150,000 “amplifier” accounts.
The giant social media platform wants to see its platform discussions used for more productive and inspiring conversations, and has been working hard to stimulate such discussions.
Inspiring
Discussing topics relating to anxiety, stress, and feelings of vulnerability, hashtags #LetsTalk and #TogetherWeCan, partners in May inspired a series of “honest, global mental health conversations.” The topics ranged from anxiety to the stress that families, peers, educators, students, and vulnerable groups experienced.
Hashtags and bespoke emoji were translated into more than 30 languages worldwide. Twitter said there were numerous creative uses during #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek and #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth, including live Twitter Q+As with mental health organizations, people sharing mental health tips and resources and people opening up about their individual mental health concerns.
Mental health emoji and hashtags in May were shared nearly 170,000 times on Twitter, promoting access to mental health resources from more than 70 global mental health organisations.
Twitter also donated Ads for Good grants for mental health partners to tweet their messages and campaigns.
In one example, Samaritans of Thailand launched an Ask Me Anything on-service Q+A, where people on Twitter had the opportunity to ask questions about their mental health stresses and have them answered and supported by @Samaritans_Thai experts.
The Q+A used hashtag #AskSamaritansTH and the bespoke mental health hashtags #UsapTayo and # — all through Twitter’s @NonProfits account to further promote the insights and resources published throughout the on-service Q+A.
Key themes included how to deal with feelings of guilt, how to manage social anxieties, and where to go to for support.
Through the Twitter @NonProfits account, the company developed a Twitter List of its mental health partner profiles and resources for people to access as needed on the service.
For those searching for help, through the Twitter @Policy account the company created a #LetsTalk Moment to highlight reach and engagement these types of conversations can enable globally.
False Allegations
Twitter has also been used for false allegations.
On Sunday, a woman who apparently accused 5 Seconds of Summer guitarist Michael Clifford of sexual misconduct apologised on twitter after saying she has learned it was a different, now-deceased man who assaulted her.
She has apologised to him for the grave error. “Today I found out that my offender is dead. My offender IS NOT MICHAEL CLIFFORD,” she wrote. “HE NEVER TOUCHED ME. HE NEVER SAID THOSE THINGS TO ME. He’s innocent. … I’m sorry, Michael, I’m completely sorry for being wrong about you and the damage I may [have] caused.”
A poster using the handle @knowyoureta claimed that Clifford, now 24, “used to invite underaged girls to his hotel room/tour bus after shows” in 2014 while the group was supporting One Direction on tour, according to NME.
The tweets said that Clifford invited an underaged fan to his hotel room after a show on one occasiona and “started touching her inappropriately.” The posts concluded by stating that the girl “tried to speak up” but “no one believed her.” NME reported that more accusations were made from another account that was later deleted.
“i am heartbroken to read these things that are being said – they are just BEYOND untrue,” Clifford responded, noting that “i was never allowed in the crowd i only ever watched at front of house – and i would’ve never EVER done that. i would NEVER do anything like that.”