Twitter looks to outside help in fighting abuse

Over 40 organisations are joining as inaugural members of Twitter's freshly-created Trust and Safety Council

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter on Tuesday announced that it is pulling together a council of outside experts and organisations to battle abusive behavior at the one-to-many messaging service.

"With hundreds of millions of Tweets sent per day, the volume of content on Twitter is massive, which makes it extraordinarily complex to strike the right balance between fighting abuse and speaking truth to power," head of global policy outreach Patricia Cartes said in a blog post.



"It requires a multi-layered approach where each of our 320 million users has a part to play, as do the community of experts working for safety and free expression."

More than 40 organisations and experts from 13 regions are joining as inaugural members of Twitter's freshly-created Trust and Safety Council, according to Cartes.

The list of members included The Anti-Defamation League; Center for Democracy and Technology; EU Kids Online, and Feminine Frequency.

"We are taking a global and inclusive approach so that we can hear a diversity of voices," Cartes said.

Twitter announced the new council on Safer Internet Day, and the heightened focus on preventing bullying, harassment and other abuses came as the San Francisco-based company strives to promote use of its platform.



"We are thrilled to work with these organisations to ensure that we are enabling everyone, everywhere to express themselves with confidence on Twitter," Cartes said.

Twitter last week announced that it had suspended more than 125,000 accounts, most of them linked to the Islamic State group, as part of increased efforts to eradicate "terrorist content" on the global messaging platform.

The accounts frozen since mid-2015 were targeted "for threatening or promoting terrorist acts," said Twitter, which is under pressure from governments to act but is also keen not to be seen as effectively censoring free speech.

At the close of stock markets in New York City on Wednesday, Twitter is to report its earnings for the final three months of last year.

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Investors will be watching to see whether use of Twitter is healthy or anemic.

Twitter shares were down about 3.4 per cents to $14.40 at the end of official New York Stock Exchange trading on Tuesday.