Twitter, Facebook, and Google are taking considerable efforts to make the world a safer place one click at a time.
In a world where the internet is a hot bed for malicious activity, it’s hard to see the good.
There seems to be a focus on all the atrocities that happen on the internet that it’s becoming easy to overlook the good.
The internet has now become a hub for everyone from including criminals and do gooders.
This blog post will focus on three examples of internet sheriffs who are doing their part to protect the internet: Twitter, Facebook, and Google.
On March 1, the social media platform announced it will now count on algorithms to identify and restrict “abusive accounts”.
What is an “abusive account”?
Twitter defines an ‘abusive account’ as “repeatedly Tweeting without solicitation and non-followers” or violating their terms of service.
Although it’s been running for weeks, the social media company just announced the news.
The algorithms dig deeper by looking at relationships between users rather than just identifying certain keywords.
Penalties include: making Tweets only available to followers for twelve hours, which is about twelve years in Twitter time and forcing verification with a phone number or email address.
Ed Ho, company’s VP of engineering says “Our platform supports the freedom to share any viewpoint, but if an account continues to repeatedly violate the Twitter Rules, we will consider taking further action.”
Since it’s a new tool there are expected to be some issues along the way, it’s a step in the right direction.
Twitter is also implementing new filter options including filtering out those who don’t have a profile picture, unverified phone numbers or email addresses, mute accounts, conversations, and keywords.
But what are they actively doing? Twitter sends in-app notifications concerning the status of accounts. The social media giant will ping you when they not only receive your report but when they take action as well.
Twitter has been making major strides to combat harassment on their platform… one step at a time.
The social media giant is using artificial intelligence to prevent suicide.
But how?
There have been a series of live streamed suicides on this social media site recently so it’s hot on CEO Mark Zuckerberg mind. According to Zuckerberg, “It’s hard to be running this company and feel like, okay, well, we didn’t do anything because no one reported it to us, You want to go build the technology that enables the friends and people in the community to go reach out and help in examples like that.”
The new AI feature will be able to identify posts that show signs of harmful or suicidal thoughts.
It compares posts and comments to those that were under merited invention. Then, Community Team at Facebook who then reaches out to the user with suicide prevention resources, a helpline, or talks to someone.
Other features include:
-Suicide prevention organizations being available via chat
-Present suicide prevention resources to Facebook live users
Facebook has decided to maintain live streaming, even if the harmful activity is taking place in order to encourage real life intervention to the situation.
The social media platform is taking serious preventative measures to make the internet a better place.
The almighty Google has an entire section on their blog dedicated to safety and security.
Google takes vast measures to prevent internet fraud.
2 step verification process for an added layer of protection on accounts:
-Uses a password, text message, prompt or security keys as the second band of protection (pin AND debit card)
-Aiming this service at non-profits to protect their donors and their cause
Google analyzes thousands of signals to get spam levels to 0.1% in Gmail, almost eliminating phishing scams.
Username and password info get into the wrong hands? Don’t fear, Google takes extra measures to make sure it’s you signing in. Whether it be from monitoring specific devices or geographical locations.
Safe browsing helps to protect yourself against phishing and malware traps. Along with app analyzers, and safe browsing specifically for Android apps.
As the most widely used search engine in the world, it’s essential that Google takes extensive measures to not only prevent internet fraud but to make the internet a safer and more secure place.
Final Thoughts
The sheriffs of the internet are Twitter, Facebook, Google, and even ClickCease.
In an age where the web is full of malicious activity, it’s becoming increasingly more important to have these sheriffs.