Working together for a safer Internet
By Ronan Costello
The first Safer Internet Day took place in 2004, a full two years before the first Tweet was sent. And just as Twitter has become a global platform, Safer Internet Day has grown from being a European event to one that's celebrated in over 140 countries. Today we join with safety partners across the world to mark #SaferInternetDay2019 and to encourage conversations around a better internet.
The theme of this year's Safer Internet Day – 'Together for a better internet' – reflects a set of beliefs we share: that the internet can always be better, that it remains a force for good, and that it's all of our jobs to make it safe and healthy.
The safety of Twitter has been our highest priority for over two years. In the last year, we have made more than 70 policy, product, and process updates to build a healthier Twitter. We also took a number of steps to help people see high-quality information, strengthening our sign-up processes, account verification and the ways our data can be accessed. Some of these changes included:
Tackling issues of behaviors that detract from the public conversation on Twitter and introducing new signals, which has led to fewer abuse reports.
Introducing new policies to address fake accounts, attributed activity and the distribution of hacked material.
Gathering public feedback as we developed new policies.
Expanding our team and focusing more resources on our health work, including the acquisition of Smyte.
Rolling out new notices so it's easier to see when a Tweet was removed for breaking our rules.
Making Twitter safer is a job that's never complete. Nor is it a job we can do alone. On Safer Internet Day, we support our global network of safety partners by amplifying their campaigns, awarding Ads for Good grants, and hosting them in our offices for frank and robust conversations. To serve that conversation on the platform, we've launched a special emoji for the hashtags #SaferInternetDay and #SID2019, available in twelve languages to encourage conversations around a safer internet.
As we look to 2019, we know that there's a lot of work to do. While we've made progress and learned a lot, the job isn't done. We are committed to improving the quality of information you see on Twitter, and to ensuring that content does not lead to offline harm. We will continue to make it more difficult for bad actors to create spammy or fake accounts that manipulate our platform. And we want to do all of this as transparently as possible. We won't stop working to build a healthier Twitter, so people feel safe and are able to find high-quality information on our service.
Ronan Costello
‎@Ronan_Costello‎
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