Following pressure from some users and consumer safety organizations over its removal, Twitter Inc. reinstated a feature that suggested suicide prevention hotlines and other safety options to users seeking up specific material.
According to two persons with knowledge of the situation, who said Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform, had ordered its removal, the function was removed a few days ago, according to a news agency’s report on Friday.
Twitter’s head of trust and safety Ella Irwin verified the removal after the story was published and described it as temporary.
“We have been fixing and revamping our prompts. They were just temporarily removed while we do that,” Irwin said in an email. “We expect to have them back up next week,” she said.
Musk, who first ignored calls for comment, tweeted, “False, it is still there,” almost 15 hours after the initial allegation.
He also posted, “Twitter doesn’t prevent suicide,” in response to Twitter users’ criticism.
For specific themes, the #ThereIsHelp feature displayed a banner at the top of search results.
It provided information about how to get in touch with support groups for issues like mental health, HIV, vaccinations, child sexual exploitation, Covid-19, gender-based violence, natural catastrophes, and freedom of expression in numerous nations.
Following its removal, various consumer advocacy organizations and Twitter users expressed worry for the safety of the platform’s most vulnerable users.
When they believe someone may be in danger of harming themselves or others, internet services such as Twitter, Alphabet’s Google, and Meta’s Facebook have long tried to point users to well-known resource providers like government hotlines. This effort is partly due to pressure from consumer safety groups.
In her email, Twitter’s Irwin said, “Google does really well with these in their search results, and (we) are actually mirroring some of their approach with the changes we are making.” She added, “We know these prompts are useful in many cases and just want to make sure they are functioning properly and continue to be relevant.” Eirliani Abdul Rahman, who had been on a recently dissolved Twitter content advisory group, said the disappearance of #ThereIsHelp was “extremely disconcerting and profoundly disturbing.”
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