A child born today will grow up in a world powered by data. They will be surrounded by powerful digital technologies, while the world’s information is digitised, analysed and transmitted around them in seconds. In the first week of their life, 3.5bn tweets will be sent.
They will grow up in a world that seems much smaller, as voices from the furthest corners of the earth are broadcast beyond national boundaries with a click. Another billion people will get online before they graduate from university.
Safer Internet Day gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect on this fact, but also to think about the challenges we face in our globally connected world. At the same time, it’s important to remember that these challenges are not the product of the internet. Our means of communication have rapidly evolved, but the issues we face as global citizens remain starkly similar.
If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that the internet’s growth has brought into the open some challenging, even upsetting, viewpoints. These viewpoints, which existed long before the iPhone, have become more visible because of the power of the technology we have at our fingertips. The internet has become a real-time global mirror, reflecting society in a way that is not always comfortable to look at.
Yet there are far more people who want to see a positive reflection than a negative one. The tolerant outnumber the intolerant, the peaceful outnumber the abusive. The challenge is ensuring that the noise generated by those who seek to create division is drowned out by voices of hope and respect.
Since long before the internet, this was how meaningful social change was realised. Those who sought equality would go to the town square and make their voices heard. Now, with campaigns like #BlackLivesMatter, #RefugeesWelcome, #LoveWins or #NotInMyName, people are once again coming together, using the global town square of the internet to make their voices heard across continents and time zones.
Prejudice within society cannot be deleted at the click of a button – or by removing content to give the impression it does not exist. We can do more. We can empower people to take action, to speak up, to say that we will not stand by and allow prejudice to go unchallenged. That’s our focus today, to engage with civil society organisations across the globe to say that Twitter is a platform where your passions, ideas and opinions matter and can be communicated without fear. It is a place where meaningful change can begin.
Our role at Twitter is to ensure the platform continues to be a place where the expression of diverse viewpoints is encouraged and defended. Twitter’s evolution as a global town square has meant we have faced challenges to ensure that voices of respect are not silenced, either by the digital mob or the encroachment of the state.
We will never be ‘done’ thinking about how to ensure when our users speak out, they can do so without fear. We know we have fallen short in the past and across the company, we are going to be judged not by our announcements but by your experiences. We never stop asking ourselves if a policy could be clearer or if new user behaviour means we need to change our rules, or the tools we employ to protect Twitter.
Last year we made several changes to improve the platform. For example, we took the decision to allow bystander reporting – meaning every Twitter user can report any tweet they see, whether or not it was directed at them specifically. We changed our rules to prohibit the posting of intimate images without consent, and also clarified the rules on hateful conduct.
This has been delivered along with an overhaul of how we review user reports about abuse, not only updating our in-product reporting processes, but making significant changes to our human review systems and staffing behind the scenes.
Looking ahead, we will continue to build on these iterations, making Twitter’s tools stronger and implementing more robust policies where necessary. We have listened to users and we will invest across our business to ensure we deliver.
To guarantee we hear the widest range of opinions on how we can improve, today we announce our Trust and Safety Council, a global network of organisations committed to making the internet safer place for everyone. Their insights will be fed into the heart of our platform.
We will never reach a position where every piece of content on Twitter is acceptable to every user, nor should we aspire to. That was the nature of the Greek senate and the town square of the middle ages, and the very same principle underpins the global online conversation in 2016.
That is not a sign of failure – it is a sign of vibrant debate on the most pressing issues that face us all.
Today, the question for us is whether we will step up, #shareaheart and make sure that the internet we see is the internet we all want – a safe, positive reflection of our society.
- Nick Pickles is head of public policy for Twitter UK