People often use social media networking sites such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter to voice their opinions, views and beliefs.
All these social networking platforms have made the world connect with the single click of a button.
The world feels smaller as people from every corner of the world can connect and interact with each other. However, all this interaction occurs behind the screen of an electronic device.
Technological advancements have taken a giant leap. People have trouble catching up. Some manage, while the majority has entangled themselves within this virtual web.
Statistics state the alarming rise of cybercrime and cyber abuse where the majority of the victims wind up being teenagers and adolescents.
The stark rise of cybercrime and abuse has led designers and developers to create more safety and privacy options to filter out negatively and toxic users.
Among the many social networking sites, Twitter has launched a safety mode protocol. The main objective of this feature is to filter out and reduce disruptive and damaging interactions by temporarily blocking accounts that are making use of foul and harmful language for seven days.
Jarrod Doherty, a Senior Product Manager of Twitter, states that the primary goal of Safety mode is to protect the individual at the receiving end by reducing the occurrence and access to harmful remarks.
Safety mode: how does this feature work?
Safety mode is a newly introduced feature that temporarily blocks accounts using offensive and derogatory comments.
The restricted type of tweets includes account holders throwing off insults and negative remarks along with uninvited mentions and replies.
The safety mode feature is made accessible in the settings option. As soon as the Safety Mode is activated, Twitter will assess the activities of the account holders.
Developers have also assured that the Safety Mode will consider the relationship between the author and the receiver.
The author of the tweets is auto blocked, which prevents them from accessing the receiver’s account, tweets, activity and cannot send Direct Messages.
Tweets that are problematic, negative or insulting and the author behind the tweets are also blocked temporarily.
The Safety Mode Feature considers the relationship between the users so accounts that an individual interacts with regularly will not be auto blocked.
Every user can also view the list of accounts that are blocked by the Safety Mode feature.
If any error in its functioning, the users can undo the autoblock Safety Mode changes in the Settings option.
Designers and developers of the feature will be monitoring the accuracy of this feature daily to ensure improvement in the functioning of the newly introduced feature.
Why is the Safety Mode introduced?
Before the Safety Mode feature, Twitter has introduced other options to ensure the privacy and safety of the users, such as hide and limit the number of replies that users can comment on Twitter.
The Twitter accounts can be switched to a private option so that no one will access a user’s activities or tweets except their mutual followers.
The purpose of these measures implemented by these developers is to filter out negative and foul language without jeopardising the safety of the users.
Twitter account holders will now be more cautious of their language and method of delivering their opinions and perspectives without attacking the receiver on the other side of the screen.
We can conclude that the Safety Mode is a newly designed feature that acts as an anti-abuse measure to be more cautious and, most importantly, feel more secure while using these social media platforms.
