Twitter seeks proposals to improve content quality on its platform

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(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. (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. (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. (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.