Twitter's suicide prevention feature removed after Elon Musk's order: Report
After rolling out on the microblogging site, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has ordered yet another change on Twitter.
According to reports, a Twitter feature designed to redirect people contemplating suicide has been discontinued after orders of Elon Musk, Reuters reported. The suicide prevention feature promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content. The report cited two people familiar with the deletion, who spoke anonymously because they feared retaliation from Musk.
However, Reuters could not immediately establish why Musk would order the removal of the feature.
Musk on Friday ordered removal of the #ThereIsHelp feature, which shared suicide prevention hotlines and other information when users searched for specific content. Twitter head of trust and safety Ella Irwin told Reuters 'we have been fixing and revamping our prompts. They were just temporarily removed while we do that.'
"We expect to have them back up next week," she added further.
#ThereIsHelp feature was shown at the top of specific searches contacts for support organisations in countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, Covid-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression.
Elon Musk will quit Twitter CEO's post when he finds 'someone foolish enough' as successor
ELIMINATION LEADS TO CONCERNS
Since the removal of the suicide prevention feature, there has been increased concerns about the well-being of vulnerable users. Eirliani Abdul Rahman, who had been on a recently dissolved Twitter content advisory group, told Reuters the elimination of #ThereIsHelp was 'extremely disconcerting and profoundly disturbing.'
"Terrible, terrible terrible," journalist Will Guyatt tweeted. "All of those who spoke of Musk transforming Twitter for the better need to pipe down."
"What kind of Grade A jerk do you have to be to cut suicide prevention and educational measures for the hell of it?" tweeted podcaster and Army Colonel Ryan T. Kranc. "We now have an answer to this question."
"As if Twitter couldn't get any worse, Musk has now gotten rid of the feature that promotes suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users," @NorskLadyWolf tweeted. "The man is pure EVIL."
"Hey @elonmusk," tweeted James Whatley, chief strategy officer for the gaming agency Diva. "This is as dangerous as it is stupid. Reverse it."
"@elonmusk why no love for the suicide prevention feature?" asked Zac Hall, senior editor at Apple news website 9to5Mac. "Seems weird.
Even since Musk has taken over Twitter, he has made a number of policy changes, introduced new features and laid off employees and has faced severe backlash. In October, he tweeted graphs showing that views or harmful content have been declining since he took over. However, researchers and civil rights groups have tracked an increase in tweets with racial slurs and other hateful content.
Last week, he shared a Twitter poll asking if he should 'step down as head of Twitter CEO', promising that he would abide by the results of the poll. A majority of the users voted in favour of him stepping down. He promised that he wouldresign as soon as he finds 'someone foolish enough to take the job'