Twitter started testing prompts last year to help people review what they’re tweeting if it contains potentially harmful or offensive words. Twitter has now made improvements to the prompts system which is rolling it out to Android and iOS users who have English as the default language.
Twitter will not stop you from tweeting curse words but will show you a prompt asking you to review the words that may be harmful.
Twitter showed these prompts for replies that contained insults, strong language, or hateful remarks. During its tests, Twitter said it found that some of these prompts were unnecessary. The reason behind this was that “the algorithms powering the prompts struggled to capture the nuance in many conversations and often didn’t differentiate between potentially offensive language, sarcasm, and friendly banter.”
The new improved algorithm will help Twitter best to better understand conversations. Before sending a prompt for an offensive reply, Twitter will consider the relationship between the author and the replier, and also how often they interact.
The algorithm will also understand situations where “language may be reclaimed by underrepresented communities and used in non-harmful ways.” At the same time, it has also improved its systems to detect strong language more accurately. Users will also be asked if the prompts may have been wrong, and a choice to give Twitter feedback.
