Twitter Inc. (TWTR) recently announced that it is all set to roll out simplified ways for its users to report abuse and harassment on the social media platform.
Following the furore on account of Zelda Williams quitting Twitter’s services due to some abusive comments hinting at the suicide of her celebrity father, Robin Williams, the micro blogging site decide to improve its abuse reporting feature.
Per Twitter, its complaint form will be simplified, especially on mobile devices going forward. Users will need to submit lesser amount of information and the time taken for online submission will also be cut down. Moreover, going forward even third parties will be able to report abuses.
Additionally, for the first time, Twitter’s users will be able to block others and the blocked users will no longer be able to view the user’s profile or tweets. Also, a new page will be created for each user whereby the number of accounts blocked by him or her will be displayed.
Recently, Twitter has been shifting its focus toward enhancing its privacy features. In fact, Twitter had recently launched a new feature titled “mute” whereby users could avoid viewing tweets from people per their discretion.
Of late, Twitter has been plagued by a slowdown in its user growth. In the third quarter of fiscal 2014, Twitter’s user growth rate declined to 4.8% from 6.3% in the prior quarter.
We believe that these steps to improve the ways of reporting abuses have been initiated by Twitter to pacify its existing users and attract new ones.
We believe that technological improvements alone can’t insure a safe and harassment free experience for all users. People who use the service also need to take some responsibility and report abuse when they see it.
Twitter has in fact declared its intention of educating its users about the company’s tools as well as how to ensure their safety and privacy.
Twitter’s ability to attract more advertising revenues, despite facing significant competition from Facebook (FB), Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) and market leader Google (GOOGL), will be something to watch out for in the near term.
We believe that the acquisitions of Cover, Gnip, TapCommerce, Namo Media and CardSpring will expand Twitter’s product portfolio and monetization capability. Twitter’s foray into e-commerce by testing the ‘Buy Now’ button is a significant positive, in our view.
Currently, Twitter has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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