By Eric King
The UK Gambling Commission has created a four-page guidance document, with Twitter’s blessing, to help users limit any gambling related content they are able to see on the online platform.
The four page guidance is part of a new strategy aimed at reducing the way individuals are exposed to gambling content in the online world. It’s overall goal is to safeguard vulnerable users who have no idea how to combat unwanted content they are exposed to.
The UKGC’s document gives the user more power to control what they see and lists ways in which a Twitter user can manage what appears in their feed. By unticking gambling related keywords, as well as other sports, and muting them there will be fewer posts appearing. Words suggested are things such as “deposti”, “new customer”, “boost”, and many other synonyms.
The guidance also recommends that users unfollow accounts associated with gambling, and turn off notifications from those they want to avoid. Furthermore, it is also possible to remove promoted tweets and block them from appearing in the future. It can also block other accounts from viewing your profile, and it is recommended that any gambling accounts should be on a ‘blocked’ list.
The CEO of the Gambling Commission, Neil McArthur, said that social media was an area of concern of the organisation and they are planning to produce more guidance for other platforms, not just Twitter. In regards to this programme, he said:
”Whilst we work on a plan which sets out new standards for how the industry will embrace advertising technology, I hope that this guidance will play a role in helping consumers to limit the gambling-related content they see on Twitter”