Twitter is Asking the Public

Twitter is asking the public to help measure how toxic it is

By Colin Lecher@colinlecher


Twitter, like other major tech companies, has faced a year of punishing criticism, as it’s been roiled by misinformation, bots, and the prominence of far-right users. Now, the company is admitting it can’t solve its problems on its own and is asking for help.


Twitter is looking for outside experts to measure the “health” of the company, it said in a statement, and is seeking proposals to determine exactly how the company is fostering “healthy debate, conversations, and critical thinking” versus “abuse, spam, and manipulation.”

CEO Jack Dorsey admitted in a series of tweets that the company has not always met users’ expectations. “We aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough,” he writes, adding that the company has focused on enforcing its terms of service, but now needed a “systemic framework.”

“We’re committing to helping increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation around the world, and to hold ourselves publicly accountable toward progress,” the company said in its blog post today. “By measuring our contribution to the overall health of the public conversation, we believe we can more holistically approach and measure our impact on the world for years to come.”

“We don’t have all of the answers and cannot do this alone, but know that the outcome will be stronger when we look to experts around the world for counsel and support,” Twitter said. The company is accepting proposals for the project until April 13th. The chosen applicants will partner with Twitter and receive funding for their projects. The company says it plans to announce the first projects in July.