Twitter has brought back a feature promoting hotlines Helps prevent suicide and other ways to ensure security after it was pressured by some users and customer security advocacy groups to remove it.
Reuters reported on Friday, citing two knowledgeable sources, that the feature had been removed from Twitter a few days ago, and the two sources said it had been removed on the orders of the new owner, Elon Musk.
After the story went public, Ella Irwin, director of trust and security at Twitter, confirmed the feature’s removal, describing it as temporary.
In an email to Reuters, he said Twitter was “fixing relevance settings, improving message notification sizes, and fixing outdated messages… We know they’re useful, and our intention is that their removal is temporary”.
About 15 hours after the initial report, Musk, who initially didn’t respond to requests for comment, posted a tweet saying, “Wrong, still there.” In response to criticism from Twitter users, he also said in another tweet: “Twitter doesn’t prevent suicide.”
The feature known as a tag (there’s help) puts a notice at the top of the search list for certain topics. Provides means of communication and communication with support institutions in many countries on mental health, AIDS, vaccinations, sexual exploitation of children, Covid-19, violence against women, natural disasters and freedom of expression.
By Saturday, the warning had reappeared in searches for suicide, domestic violence and self-harm in many countries.
