Twitter’s New ‘Trigger Warnings’ Feature Is Apparently Broken
Twitter users have expressed dissatisfaction with the site’s new “Heads Up” feature, which puts warning labels on potentially “intense” conservations.
SO WHAT
Many liberals want Big Tech to further regulate online speech, but the companies haven’t proved very good at the job.
WHAT HAPPENED
Twitter rolled out “Heads Up” this week in as part of a campaign to promote “healthy conversation,” and the early review of the “trigger warnings” were damning as innocuous tweets were flagged for no apparent reason.
Really @Twitter? The “heads up” function is completely bizarre. pic.twitter.com/7CfSIvWHI2
— 👻MizzOOOOOOOatheart👻 (@mizzouatheart) October 7, 2021
One tweet by The Spectator’s Washington editor Amber Athey was seemingly targeted just for mentioning former President Donald Trump.
Twitter put a “heads up” label on this tweet. 🙄 cc @amber_athey pic.twitter.com/CuaieYg8M4
— Kristina Wong 🇺🇸 (@kristina_wong) October 6, 2021
Some said the warnings were being affixed to tweets that named President Joe Biden.
Seeing the warning label “Heads Up – Conversations like this can be intense” on anyone’s post mentioning Biden pic.twitter.com/yFiACR0cDU
— StreetCitizen (@StreetCitizen) October 6, 2021
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh took the new system in stride.
Twitter is now warning people that my tweets are “intense” pic.twitter.com/0u5mk6wwpT
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 7, 2021
But other conservatives suggested the new alerts were being applied to one side more than the other.
These “Heads Up” warnings from Twitter are starting to feel like targeted harassment.
— Sally Summertime 🇺🇸 (@snide_sally) October 7, 2021
Meanwhile, transgender journalist Katelyn Burns was among those on the left who urged Twitter to crack down harder.
Christ just ban the people who tell me I deserve to die https://t.co/UO6x4erIKw
— Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) October 6, 2021
BIG GOVERNMENT?
Both congressional Republicans and Democrats have threatened to regulate Big Tech, as Americans have soured on social media, but for very different reasons
- “The left wants more censorship” while the “right wants either more or less of it, but on terms favorable to conservatives,” The Dispatch editor in chief Jonah Goldberg summarized in his Wednesday newsletter.
THE RESEARCH
When it comes to “trigger warnings,” an exhaustive analysis of the research published last month by a pair of Carleton College professors found no “significant benefits” to the alerts about potentially upsetting material.
- Multiple studies have concluded “trigger warnings” may be counterproductive.