Report claims that Elon Musk quietly directed the removal of Twitter’s suicide prevention feature #ThereIsHelp

Since October’s $44 billion acquisition, Elon Musk has made major changes to Twitter. Getty Images
Sources told Reuters that Elon Musk ordered the deletion of a Twitter suicide prevention function. Ella Irwin (Twitter’s head for trust and safety) said that a replacement must be available next week.

According to Reuters, Elon Musk ordered Twitter’s suicide prevention tool to be removed in secret. However, the company stated that it would soon be replaced.

According to the news agency, #ThereIsHelp, which was displayed when users viewed specific content, has disappeared from Twitter this week.

According to two sources, Musk ordered the removal of the document.

Ella Irwin is Twitter’s trust and safety head. She told Reuters by email that she had been “fixing and revamping our prompts.” They were temporarily removed while we work on that. They will be back next week.

Twitter introduced the #ThereIsHelp feature before Musk’s $44B acquisition. It was designed to provide users with credible information on topics such as HIV, suicide prevention and vaccines, as well gender-based violence.

Co-founder of SAFEnet and online safety activist Damar Juniarto pointed out that the prompt is no longer being used on Twitter to address these topics.

Reuters was told by AIDS United that the feature had brought in about 70 referrals per day. It stated that this number has fallen to 14 since the feature was removed.

According to the body, the feature was removed by surprise.

Irwin stated to Reuters that Twitter tried to replicate the structures of tech giants Google and Facebook. This moves to redirect users towards official resource providers like government hotlines.

She said that prompts can be useful in many situations and she wanted to ensure they were functioning correctly and remained relevant.

Eirliani Rahman, who has recently resigned from Twitter’s safety and trust council, said that the move was “extremely troubling and deeply disturbing.” She said that even though the purpose of the revamp was to be completed, it would not be removed.

Business Insider has the original article.
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By: rhogg@insider.com (Ryan Hogg)
Title: Elon Musk quietly ordered the removal of Twitter’s #ThereIsHelp suicide prevention feature, report says
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-ordered-removal-of-twitter-suicide-prevention-feature-report-2022-12
Published Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2022 13:04:31 +0000