(Reuters) - Twitter Inc on Thursday sought help to improve the quality of conversations on its micro-blogging site in a bid to address rising criticism against social media companies for failing to protect users from online abuse and political manipulation.
Twitter's new approach, it said in a blog, would be based on identifying metrics to gauge the "health of public conversations" and ways to measure it. The social network has created a webpage where anyone can submit their proposals. (http://bit.ly/2oGU819)
In a series of tweets on Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey acknowledged that Twitter 'didn't fully predict or understand the real-world negative consequences' of instant public messaging.
He said negative consequences that Twitter has witnessed include abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns and increasingly divisive echo chambers. (http://bit.ly/2HUvfYA)
Dorsey said Twitter has been focusing on removing content that were against its terms but now needed a change in approach.
In August 2016, Twitter said it had deleted 235,000 accounts in six months for promoting extremism. (http://bit.ly/2oHms3n)
Accusations of Russian meddling in U.S. presidential elections via social networks had turned the heat on social networks over their ability to control content.
(Reporting by Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
