Twitter Inc removed a feature in the past few days that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter who said it was ordered by new owner Elon Musk.
Following the publication of the report, Twitter Inc’s head of trust and safety Ella Irwin told Reuters that “we have been fixing and revamping our prompts. They were just temporarily removed while we do that,” via email.
“We expect to have them back up next week,” she added.
Twitter’s #ThereIsHelp feature had led to “increased concerns about the well-being of vulnerable users on Twitter.”
The #ThereIsHelp, features specific searches for support organisations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, COVID-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression, the report said.
Musk added by saying that “impressions, or views, of harmful content are declining since he took over in October and has tweeted graphs showing a downward trend, even as researchers and civil rights groups have tracked an increase in tweets with racial slurs and other hateful content,” Reuters added.
In her email, Twitter’s Irwin also told Reuters, “We know these prompts are useful in many cases and just want to make sure they are functioning properly and continue to be relevant.”
The sources with knowledge of Musk’s decision to order the removal of the feature declined to be named because they feared retaliation, the report said adding that one of them said millions of people had encountered #ThereIsHelp messages.
According to company Twitter posts, the social media company had launched some prompts about five years ago and some had been available in over 30 countries.
The report added that in one of its blog posts about the feature, Twitter had said it had responsibility to ensure users could “access and receive support on our service when they need it most.”
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