Twitter has come under increasing public scrutiny for facilitating hostile communication online.
Who faces hostility on Twitter?
Hostility on Twitter is disproportionately directed towards women, people of color and marginalized groups.
For example, in 2016 US comedianLeslie Joneswasinundated with racist tweetsfollowing the release of the filmGhostbusters.
You won’t believe the evil.
It’s fucking scary
Leslie Jones ?
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Hey@jack, weve been keeping track… and@Twitteris still a toxic place for women.
Twitters affordances shape how users interact on the site.
The character limit of tweets also facilitates brief, impulsive, inimical exchange.
In 2017, the company introduced changes to reduce hostility on Twitter.
Notable changes included doubling thelength of tweetsfrom 140 to 280 characters.
Research also shows false and misleading news is retweeted more than authentic stories, especially amonglike-minded groups.
In 2018, Twitter launched a healthy conversation strategy.
This aimed to assess the health of interactions on Twitter with a view toimprovethem.
The sociologistErving Goffmancalled this kind of activity face-work.
The aim of face-work is to create a positive impression of ourselves to others.
When we have face, we succeed in presenting a consistent self that others validate.
In contrast, we lose face when information arises that undercuts ourpresentation of self.
Ourresearchextends the idea of face-work to examine the strategies Twitter users employ to interact with others.
Hostile interactions on Twitter often take specific forms, such asdoxing,pile-onsandratioing.
Two kinds of face-work
Face-work generally occurs intwo ways.
The second is correction, where people make efforts to apologize for their own face-threatening actions.
This tweet is staggeringly ignorant and would be funny if it werent dangerous.
They are not involved in politics in Pakistan nor anywhere else.
Avoidance, on the other, often takes the form of blocking other Twitter users.
I do not employ his wife2.
Im aware of no illegal activities3.
There is no c)nflict of interest4.
Improving Twitters environment
This places Twitter in a difficult situation.
This could include hiding likes or removing re-tweets and algorithms.
