Twitter has reinstated a feature that promotes suicide prevention hotlines and safety resources for vulnerable users after receiving backlash over its removal.
The feature labelled #ThereIsHelp was taken down a few days ago, a report published on Friday by Reuters had established, citing two persons familiar with the matter. #ThereIsHelp placed a banner at the top of search results for certain categories and laid out contact details of organisations working in various sensitive areas, including mental health, child sexual exploitation, HIV, vaccines, COVID-19, freedom of expression, and gender-based violence.
The disappearance of #ThereIsHelp attracted widespread attention from users and consumer safety groups. Following the publication of the Reuters report, Twitter’s Head of Trust and Safety Ella Irwin confirmed that the feature had been removed temporarily.
“We have been fixing and revamping our prompts,” said Irwin. “They were just temporarily removed while we do that. We expect to have them back up next week.”
She said Twitter had been assessing the efficacy of the feature while it was inaccessible.
“Google does really well with these in their search results and [we] are actually mirroring some of their approach with the changes we are making,” Irwin added. “We know these prompts are useful in many cases and just want to make sure they are functioning properly and continue to be relevant.”
Twitter’s owner Elon Musk, on the other hand, called the report “fake news”.
False, it is still there
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 24, 2022
“False, it is still there,” Musk tweeted, and later added: “Twitter doesn’t prevent suicide”.
1. The message is actually still up. This is fake news.
2. Twitter doesn’t prevent suicide.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 24, 2022
A number of users and support groups responded to the feature’s removal with serious concerns for vulnerable users on Twitter, given the dramatic rise in hate speech and other forms of potentially harmful content on the troubled platform. Despite Musk’s claims of declining hate speech since his takeover, research continues to reveal the spread of information disorders, hate and harassment under his “free speech absolutism” ideals on Twitter.
Last week, Musk polled his followers about whether he should step down as head of Twitter. The poll recorded over 17 million votes, with at least 10 million in favour of the billionaire standing down as the platform’s chief. Musk acknowledged the results, but said he would leave only after having found a “foolish enough” replacement to run Twitter. The decision has yet to be made.
