Science & Tech

Elon Musk is about to make Twitter extra-sweary

Elon Musk is about to make Twitter extra-sweary
Dave Davies takes on Elon Musk after Twitter mislabels The Kinks updates …
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It seems Elon Musk may be looking to get rid of Twitter’s anti-bullying prompts in his latest change to the social media platform.

On Sunday, Musk replied to a Twitter user’s complaints about the platform’s prompts every time he uses a swear word in a tweet.

“Hey [Elon Musk] I’m a 56 year old grown man. Served this great country for 27 years. Raised 3 sons into fine men. I don’t need Twitter asking me am I sure I want to tweet this every time I say “s***” because it may hurt someone’s feelings. Turn that algorithm off please,” Jarome wrote.

Musk wrote, “agreed.”

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This could mean Twitter’s CEO is looking to get rid of the prompt feature, which was first introduced in 2021 to help reduce cyberbullying and encourage users to tweet with consideration.

Anytime a person tries to tweet using offensive language, like swear words, a prompt will come up asking someone to “review” their tweet before they hit send.

Although no official announcement has been made, the change would fall in line with Musk’s philosophy on content moderation on Twitter.

Musk tends to take a more hands-off approach to moderation like giving suspended accounts a second chance and ending campaigns against misinformation - instead replacing them with community notes.

But Musk's relaxed method of content moderation has resulted in harmful behavior.

In the first 100 days Musk owned Twitter, people noted that the use of hateful words increased. Additionally, Kanye West returned to the platform and went on an antisemitic rant leading to another suspension.

Since taking over Twitter last year, Musk has made various changes to the platform, most notably introducing the subscription-based Twitter Blue which allows any user to become verified and access locked features.

He's also added the "for you" tab as well as the "following" feed.

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