Social Media

Twitter to get even harsher on trolls

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter
Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Twitter is cracking down even harder against trolls, including temporarily barring accounts that are harassing other users.

In a blog posted Wednesday, Twitter's vice president of engineering, Ed Ho, announced more safety measures to stop abuse on its platform.

One of the methods includes using the company's internal algorithms to identify problematic accounts and limiting certain account functions — such as only allowing the aggressor to see their followers — for a set period of time if they engaged in troublesome behavior.

Twitter said it was also open to further action if the harassment continued.

Other anti-trolling tools include new filters to let users see what kinds of content they want to view from certain accounts and well as allowing people to "mute" tweets based on keywords, phrases or entire conversations.

The announcement follows a series of measures that Twitter has undertaken to curb abusive behavior on its platform.

In early February, the company said it would get rid of "low-quality" and potentially harassing tweets from feeds and searches. It also has blocked people who repeatedly swore at verified accounts. Previously, it banned notorious alt-right celebrity Milo Yiannopoulos as well as Martin Shkreli after incidents of them harassing other users.