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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
- Twitter admitted that it has to do more to protect its users from harassment and threats.
- It also said it needs to be more open about what it is doing and why.
- So, on Thursday it announced something new: a public timetable to have new rules or features in place, and open progress report on these efforts.
Twitter on Thursday published a blog post that admitted that the company has often promised to protect people from harassment and violent threats and failed to follow through on efforts to improve.
"Far too often in the past we've said we'd do better and promised transparency but have fallen short in our efforts," the company said in the post.
The mea culpa came after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sent a series of tweets late last Friday promising to do better. This after a backlash the company received for temporarily banning the account of actress Rose McGowan after she accused Ben Affleck of lying about his knowledge of producer Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual harassment.
Earlier this week, Dorsey outlined a long list of specific behaviors that Twitter will ban including becoming stricter over "non-consensual" nudity, hate symbols, and threats of violence. Twitter is also developing new rules on groups that advocate for the use of violence.
But on Thursday the company tried do more than just issue more promises. It included a timetable for when the company expects to have these new rules in place, or at least give a progress report.
For instance, it says it expects to publish its new rules on violence and hate groups by November 3 and it will provide updates on the progress of all the new rules between now and mid-December. "This is the first time we've shared this level of visibility into our work, and we hope it helps build trust along the way."
Twitter is also hiring for its Trust and Safety teams. Of the 297 positions it has open, seven are for positions on its Trust & Safety team (including one for a six-month contract position). This compares to 21 in its marketing and communications department, 58 in sales and partnerships and 103 in software engineering.