Twitter has reinstated a suicide prevention feature it temporarily removed last week. The company said the removal was temporary as it was optimizing functionality.The #ThereIsHelp banner has returned to its social media apps.
Alongside many other online platforms, Twitter also offered suicide prevention features. When users searched for specific content that might suggest self-harm, they were shown #ThereIsHelp banners, directing them to suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources. But this banner suddenly disappeared from Twitter last week. News that Elon Musk ordered its removal quickly spread, leading to widespread criticism from users and consumer safety advocates.
Musk, on the other hand, called it “fake news” and said the banner was still up, even though many users didn’t see it. Added in style. The news certainly turned out to be wrong. Twitter’s CEO did not order the removal of the suicide prevention feature. Instead, it was the company’s Trust and Safety department that made some changes to the banner.
Twitter’s head of trust and safety told Reuters it had originally claimed that Musk had ordered the removal of the feature, but the company has been optimizing the banner and has temporarily removed it. Social networks grappled with banner size and its relevance. Also fixed the old prompt. “We knew they were useful and our intention was never to take them down permanently.
Twitter plans to adopt Google’s approach to suicide prevention feature
Along with clarifying that the #ThereIsHelp banner has been temporarily removed last week, Irwin also shared more information about Twitter’s plans for suicide prevention features. She said the company will adopt her Google approach to this banner. “Google provides relevant message prompts based on search terms. I added that I am “reflecting” some of the approaches in my changes.
Twitter’s #ThereIsHelp banner appeared below search results for topics such as suicide, self-harm, HIV, COVID-19, child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, and gender-based violence. It is not known whether banners have been restored for all these topics. Meanwhile, consumer safety advocates point out that the company should have worked on the change “in parallel” rather than removing existing features. We could have replaced them with new features as soon as we were ready.