Twitter has released a new report about a study that it recently conducted to evaluate how effective its warnings against offensive tweet replies were.
The company first rolled out the functionality in 2020 that alerted users about how their reply to a tweet can be potentially offensive and go against the app’s policies.
The feature was then relaunched in 2021 to knock some common sense and consideration for users when they’re using the app to speak their minds.
After the issuance of a warning by the app, we see the system get active because it picks up on offensive terminologies within those replies. That triggers an alert and hence incorporates a certain kind of hesitation along the way.
In February of this year, the study proved how around 30% of the warnings issued actually had a positive influence on users as it made them rethink their behavior. And in the end, such users were changing or even deleting the responses. Hence, that showed how much they cared about being offensive or for others to misinterpret their real intentions.
With this study, we are seeing Twitter take a giant plunge into gauging how valuable these alerts can be in the long run.
The company released a public statement where they highlighted how their warning prompted users to rethink their responses. Hence, it was clear how the company was keen on seeing what happens after a user gets prompted to rethink their thoughts.
Therefore, the only way forward was to carry out a follow-up study to see if there were any positive results on the app with time.
This came in the form of a peer review where more than 200,000 replies were reevaluated from 2021. And that’s when the firm concluded that there were some positive as well as negative effects across the app.
Interestingly, they were also able to find how those exposed to warnings were more likely to stop themselves from engaging in such behavior in the near future. Who knew such a simple step could actually bring about so much change?
On average, with 100 cases where warnings were issued, 69 of those cases were released without any revisions being made; 9 were never sent out, and about 22 had undergone revision.
Clearly, these findings are aligned with the 30% figure but it was also very unique to see how the users’ behavior changed in general. And the final result is that people became so much more considerate when typing out their replies.
As you can see, Twitter shouldn’t be taken too personally because if you do, it can really impact your mental health.
Read next: Twitter Launches Its Revamped Content Reporting Tools For The Masses With Promising Results
The company first rolled out the functionality in 2020 that alerted users about how their reply to a tweet can be potentially offensive and go against the app’s policies.
The feature was then relaunched in 2021 to knock some common sense and consideration for users when they’re using the app to speak their minds.
After the issuance of a warning by the app, we see the system get active because it picks up on offensive terminologies within those replies. That triggers an alert and hence incorporates a certain kind of hesitation along the way.
In February of this year, the study proved how around 30% of the warnings issued actually had a positive influence on users as it made them rethink their behavior. And in the end, such users were changing or even deleting the responses. Hence, that showed how much they cared about being offensive or for others to misinterpret their real intentions.
With this study, we are seeing Twitter take a giant plunge into gauging how valuable these alerts can be in the long run.
The company released a public statement where they highlighted how their warning prompted users to rethink their responses. Hence, it was clear how the company was keen on seeing what happens after a user gets prompted to rethink their thoughts.
Therefore, the only way forward was to carry out a follow-up study to see if there were any positive results on the app with time.
This came in the form of a peer review where more than 200,000 replies were reevaluated from 2021. And that’s when the firm concluded that there were some positive as well as negative effects across the app.
Interestingly, they were also able to find how those exposed to warnings were more likely to stop themselves from engaging in such behavior in the near future. Who knew such a simple step could actually bring about so much change?
On average, with 100 cases where warnings were issued, 69 of those cases were released without any revisions being made; 9 were never sent out, and about 22 had undergone revision.
Clearly, these findings are aligned with the 30% figure but it was also very unique to see how the users’ behavior changed in general. And the final result is that people became so much more considerate when typing out their replies.
As you can see, Twitter shouldn’t be taken too personally because if you do, it can really impact your mental health.
Read next: Twitter Launches Its Revamped Content Reporting Tools For The Masses With Promising Results
