Twitter Restores Suicide Prevention Hotline, Other Safety Features for Users

Twitter Inc has restored a feature that promotes suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, after coming under pressure from some users and consumer safety groups over its removal.

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Reuters reported on Friday that the feature was taken down a few days ago, citing two people familiar with the matter, who said the removal was ordered by the social media platform's new owner Elon Musk.

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After publication of the story, Twitter head of trust and safety Ella Irwin confirmed the removal and called it temporary.

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Twitter was "fixing relevance, optimising the size of the message prompts and correcting outdated prompts," Irwin said in an email to Reuters. "We know they are useful and our intent was not to have them down permanently."

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About 15 hours after the initial report, Musk, who did not initially respond to requests for comment, tweeted "False, it is still there." In response to criticism by Twitter users, he also tweeted "Twitter doesn't prevent suicide."

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The feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, places a banner at the top of search results for certain topics. It has listed contacts for support organizations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, COVID-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression.

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Twitter Restores Suicide Prevention Hotline, Other Safety Features for Users

The feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, places a banner at the top of search results for certain topics.

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Twitter Inc has restored a feature that promotes suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, after coming under pressure from some users and consumer safety groups over its removal.

Brought to you by Trickyenough

Reuters reported on Friday that the feature was taken down a few days ago, citing two people familiar with the matter, who said the removal was ordered by the social media platform's new owner Elon Musk.

Brought to you by Trickyenough

After publication of the story, Twitter head of trust and safety Ella Irwin confirmed the removal and called it temporary.

Brought to you by Trickyenough

Twitter was "fixing relevance, optimising the size of the message prompts and correcting outdated prompts," Irwin said in an email to Reuters. "We know they are useful and our intent was not to have them down permanently."

Brought to you by Trickyenough

About 15 hours after the initial report, Musk, who did not initially respond to requests for comment, tweeted "False, it is still there." In response to criticism by Twitter users, he also tweeted "Twitter doesn't prevent suicide."

Brought to you by Trickyenough

Brought to you by Trickyenough