In the last 24 hours, multiple Twitter users have received notifications telling them to “support a culture of respect on Twitter” and familiarize themselves with the rules. Some of these notifications also contain the ominous message that those who break the rules may lose their accounts.
The notification messages appear to have two variants. The first variant says:
“Support a culture of respect on Twitter
Did you know fewer than 1% of people on Twitter produce most of the Tweets that break our rules against abuse? Please take a look at our rules to know what is and isn’t allowed.”
This just popped up on my screen. Support a culture of respect? That's rich coming from people that don't have a clue as to what respect means. pic.twitter.com/XCT2liEzuY
— The Fed Up Ex-Fed (@TheFedUpExFed) July 30, 2019
The second variant says:
“A reminder about our rules
People on Twitter should be free to express themselves without the fear of being harassed. Those who intimidate or threaten others may lose their accounts.”
I got "A reminder about our rules" too, doesn't seem to be connected to anything I tweeted. This is Twitter trying to look accountable. They have a long way to go to truly reduce harassment #OnHere. pic.twitter.com/L6Q7OPi2IS
— Tacit Subtext is @[email protected] (@TSubtext) July 29, 2019
Both variants finish with a “Learn more” button and a “Got it” link. The “Learn more” button directs the user to Twitter’s rules while the “Got it” link closes the notification.
It’s not clear what triggers the sending of these notifications although they appear to be primarily going to accounts that engage in political commentary.
https://twitter.com/arthursamuelhu1/status/1156090872175312896
It’s also quite bizarre that Twitter deems it necessary to start sending out these notifications considering that, according to its own statistics, this rule-breaking behavior is something that less than 1% of Twitter users engage in.
Most users are not happy with these messages and suggesting that they’re highly hypocritical.
https://twitter.com/zaney_zoney/status/1156222728354979841
Hey @Twitter… What do you EVER do about the hate spewed by Trump? Do you call his tweets respectful?? Why don't YOU support a culture of respect?? BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE 🌎 EH?? #YouCantMakeThisStuffUp … pic.twitter.com/DKaMqDeQWS
— 🇬🇧🍸PreciselyKate🍸🇬🇧 (@TheatreChick76) July 29, 2019
Hey @Twitter why are you asking me to "support a culture of respect on twitter" when you don't actually do shit about reports, or those people you know who break the rules? pic.twitter.com/syllMGRXRv
— Lincoln Stoll (@lstoll) July 30, 2019
Despite admitting that this is a small scale problem, Twitter has shown that it’s committed to censoring people’s speech on the platform. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told investors on a recent earnings call that suppressing what the company deems to be “misinformation” during elections is a “number one priority” for the company. Before making these statements, Twitter also changed its rules to ban what it describes as “dehumanizing” speech.
Twitter isn’t the only platform that’s rolling out ominous warning messages to its users. Instagram also recently started using artificial intelligence (AI) to warn users that “their comment may be considered offensive.”
