In what seems to be an effort to tone down “toxicity,” Twitter will be introducing prompts that warn users that a conversation they are about to enter is intense or heated.
“Ever want to know about the vibe of a conversation before you join in?” tweeted Twitter Support. “We’re testing prompts on Android and iOS that give you a heads-up if a convo you’re about to enter could get heated or intense.”
Twitter has long been considered a platform where people will fight about anything and everything. Now, the platform will give users a heads up before entering a fight you know nothing about, the goal being to promote “healthy conversation.”
But it is not clear how it will determine if a conversation is heated, although the tweet announcing the new feature noted that it “is a work in progress.”
The new prompt will appear under a tweet, with a warning reading “conversations like these can be intense.”
To participate in a conversation labeled as intense, users will have to accept a prompt.
Twitter added that it might consider the topic of the tweet and the relationship between the tweet’s author and replier before showing the prompt, giving the platform plenty of opportunities to censor.
The company has experimented with prompts before. It introduced a prompt that encourages users to reconsider before posting a “hateful” reply.
