Twitter Recommended An Abusive Tweet In My Notifications!
I’ve been active on Twitter for a little over two years now. I know I’m a bit late to the party but better late than never. However, Twitter’s random notifications are just another level.
Social media platforms already need a ton of improvement for content moderation in India. But Twitter doesn’t filter much content anyway.
Twitter Sent An Abusive Tweet In My Notifications!
So here’s what happened. I pick up my phone when I wake up, and Twitter is among the first things I check. There’s a ‘suggested tweet’ from a random guy in my notifications.
I’ve censored the words in the screenshot, but you can read the tweet here.
I decided to open it, and it’s an abusive tweet. The guys used the Hindi equivalent of F-off here. But don’t be misguided if you don’t speak Hindi because these are pretty harsh words.
What’s surprising is I wasn’t the only one who was notified. People have been wildly commenting under the tweet, saying, “Received in the notification. Twitter has recommended that I watch this.”
Anna Hazare, a well known hunger-strike activist, expressed his disappointment with the Maharashtra government allowing wine shops into supermarkets.
The abusive tweet we’re talking about is just a guy disagreeing with the activist. However, Twitter decided to send people a notification to pick up their phones and see this.
Engagement.
Social media is an engagement game. You have more views, and you earn more money. You have more likes, earn more followers, and the cycle goes on. However, sometimes it crosses a line.
For instance, if someone had bothered checking this before notifying people, it might not be getting the spotlight that it received.
I skimmed through Twitter’s abusive behavior rules, and there’s not much to work with. The guy hurling abuse here is just keeping his view, which is okay because he directly means no harm.
However, by notifying others about it, Twitter shows there’s no moderation whatsoever. I wouldn’t mind if this popped up in my feed, and I could scroll past it.
But getting a notification about it isn’t very pleasant. So much so that I dug up about the feature, and it turns out nobody likes these.
Jordan Crook from TechCrunch wrote a piece on Twitter notifications being awful back in 2017, and I’m surprised to see it relevant to date.
Either Moderate, Or Don’t Share
If I could get one thing through to Twitter, it’d be this. The platform should either have some moderation before notifying people about tweets, or it should just stop notifying people altogether.
Either way, an abusive tweet like today’s or any other unwanted thing would be less likely to have me snooze my Twitter notifications and miss out on something important.
The platform has been lately working on knowing your reasons for reporting a tweet. If you feel like you’ve had too much, we have a list of Twitter alternatives that may suit you better.
