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Chief Twit Elon Musk DENIES shutting down Twitter suicide prevention feature<!-- wp:html --><div></div> <div> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Elon Musk has denied reports that Twitter removed its suicide prevention feature after the company’s head of trust said the tool was “temporarily” paused, sparking concerns from campaigners. </p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Musk responded to a Reuters report on the news with the tweet, “False, it is still there.”</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Reuters published a story Friday night labeled as exclusive, saying that Twitter had removed a feature promoting suicide prevention hotlines and reported that the move was “ordered by new owner Elon Musk.”</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Known as #ThereIsHelp, the feature directs users to support services as they search for terms related to suicide and other issues, including mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, COVID-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters, and freedom of expression. </p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">The article cited sources “familiar with the matter.” Several organizations that collaborated with the Twitter feature claimed that the help prompts were no longer visible. </p> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group"> <div class="mol-img"> <div class="image-wrap"> </div> </div> <p class="imageCaption">Sources told Reuters that the suicide prevention feature had been removed under Musk’s leadership. He dismissed the claim as “fake news,” and Reuters reported that the feature has been reinstated</p> </div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group"> <div class="mol-img"> <div class="image-wrap"> </div> </div> <p class="imageCaption">Musk replied to a Reuters tweet about the feature’s removal with, “False, it is still there”</p> </div> <p class="mol-para-with-font">After the story was published, Twitter head of trust and security Ella Irwin told Reuters that “we have restored and refreshed our prompts. They’re just temporarily removed while we do that.”</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">“We expect to have them available again next week,” Irwin said.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">About 15 hours after the initial report, Musk said “the [suicide prevention message] is still up’ and described the report as ‘fake news’.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Reuters said Musk had not responded to his request for comment before publishing the story.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">The news agency then published another story on Saturday morning saying that Twitter reinstated the feature after the initial report. </p> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group"> <div class="mol-img"> <div class="image-wrap"> </div> </div> <p class="imageCaption">Reuters published his story, labeled as exclusive, on Dec. 23. The outlet said Musk did not respond to requests for comment</p> </div> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group"> <div class="mol-img"> <div class="image-wrap"> </div> </div> <p class="imageCaption">Musk responded on Twitter about 15 hours later, after which Reuters reported that the feature had been reinstated</p> </div> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Reuters reported that the feature’s “elimination” had come earlier this week.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Officials from several organizations promoted through the feature expressed concern about the situation and one said references to their website had declined.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Eirliani Abdul Rahman, who was part of a recently disbanded Twitter content advisory group, said #ThereIsHelp’s disappearance was “extremely disturbing and deeply distressing.”</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Even if it was only temporarily removed to make room for improvements, “normally you would be working on it in parallel, not removing it,” she said.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Washington-based AIDS United, which was promoted in #ThereIsHelp, and iLaw, a Thai group cited for supporting free speech, both told Reuters on Friday that the feature’s disappearance came as a surprise to them.</p> <div class="artSplitter mol-img-group"> <div class="mol-img"> <div class="image-wrap"> </div> </div> <p class="imageCaption">Reuters said the tool was removed under Musk’s direction. The apparent hiatus in Twitter’s suicide prevention feature raised concerns among some of the organizations that partnered with it</p> </div> <p class="mol-para-with-font">AIDS United said a web page referenced by the Twitter feature was viewed about 70 times a day through Dec. 18. Since then it has been viewed a total of 14 times.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Damar Juniarto, executive director of Twitter partner Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, tweeted Friday about the missing feature, saying “stupid actions” by the social media service could cause his organization to shut down.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">The sources who spoke to Reuters about Musk’s decision to order the feature’s removal declined to be named citing fear of retaliation. One said that millions of people had come across #ThereIsHelp posts.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Twitter had launched some prompts about five years ago, and some were available in more than 30 countries, according to tweets from the company. In one of its blog posts about the feature, Twitter had said it had a responsibility to ensure that users “can access and get support for our service when they need it most.”</p> <div class="mol-embed"> <p>1. The message is actually still active. This is fake news.</p> <p>2. Twitter does not prevent suicide.</p> <p>— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1606627557021212672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener">December 24, 2022</a></p> </div> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Alex Goldenberg, chief intelligence analyst at the nonprofit Network Contagion Research Institute, said prompts that appeared in search results several days ago were no longer visible Thursday.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">He and his colleagues published a study in August that found that monthly Twitter mentions of certain terms related to self-harm have increased more than 500% from about the previous year, with younger users particularly at risk when seeing such content.</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">“If this decision is symbolic of a policy change where they stop taking these issues seriously, it’s extremely dangerous,” Goldenberg said. “It goes against Musk’s previous commitments to prioritize child safety.”</p> <p class="mol-para-with-font">Musk has said he wants to combat child sexual abuse content on Twitter and has criticized the previous owner’s handling of the issue. But he has cut out large portions of the teams involved in dealing with potentially offensive material.</p> </div> <p>The post <a href="https://whatsnew2day.com/chief-twit-elon-musk-denies-shutting-down-twitter-suicide-prevention-feature/">Chief Twit Elon Musk DENIES shutting down Twitter suicide prevention feature</a> appeared first on <a href="https://whatsnew2day.com/">WhatsNew2Day</a>.</p><!-- /wp:html -->

Elon Musk has denied reports that Twitter removed its suicide prevention feature after the company’s head of trust said the tool was “temporarily” paused, sparking concerns from campaigners.

Musk responded to a Reuters report on the news with the tweet, “False, it is still there.”

Reuters published a story Friday night labeled as exclusive, saying that Twitter had removed a feature promoting suicide prevention hotlines and reported that the move was “ordered by new owner Elon Musk.”

Known as #ThereIsHelp, the feature directs users to support services as they search for terms related to suicide and other issues, including mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, COVID-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters, and freedom of expression.

The article cited sources “familiar with the matter.” Several organizations that collaborated with the Twitter feature claimed that the help prompts were no longer visible.

Sources told Reuters that the suicide prevention feature had been removed under Musk’s leadership. He dismissed the claim as “fake news,” and Reuters reported that the feature has been reinstated

Musk replied to a Reuters tweet about the feature’s removal with, “False, it is still there”

After the story was published, Twitter head of trust and security Ella Irwin told Reuters that “we have restored and refreshed our prompts. They’re just temporarily removed while we do that.”

“We expect to have them available again next week,” Irwin said.

About 15 hours after the initial report, Musk said “the [suicide prevention message] is still up’ and described the report as ‘fake news’.

Reuters said Musk had not responded to his request for comment before publishing the story.

The news agency then published another story on Saturday morning saying that Twitter reinstated the feature after the initial report.

Reuters published his story, labeled as exclusive, on Dec. 23. The outlet said Musk did not respond to requests for comment

Musk responded on Twitter about 15 hours later, after which Reuters reported that the feature had been reinstated

Reuters reported that the feature’s “elimination” had come earlier this week.

Officials from several organizations promoted through the feature expressed concern about the situation and one said references to their website had declined.

Eirliani Abdul Rahman, who was part of a recently disbanded Twitter content advisory group, said #ThereIsHelp’s disappearance was “extremely disturbing and deeply distressing.”

Even if it was only temporarily removed to make room for improvements, “normally you would be working on it in parallel, not removing it,” she said.

Washington-based AIDS United, which was promoted in #ThereIsHelp, and iLaw, a Thai group cited for supporting free speech, both told Reuters on Friday that the feature’s disappearance came as a surprise to them.

Reuters said the tool was removed under Musk’s direction. The apparent hiatus in Twitter’s suicide prevention feature raised concerns among some of the organizations that partnered with it

AIDS United said a web page referenced by the Twitter feature was viewed about 70 times a day through Dec. 18. Since then it has been viewed a total of 14 times.

Damar Juniarto, executive director of Twitter partner Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, tweeted Friday about the missing feature, saying “stupid actions” by the social media service could cause his organization to shut down.

The sources who spoke to Reuters about Musk’s decision to order the feature’s removal declined to be named citing fear of retaliation. One said that millions of people had come across #ThereIsHelp posts.

Twitter had launched some prompts about five years ago, and some were available in more than 30 countries, according to tweets from the company. In one of its blog posts about the feature, Twitter had said it had a responsibility to ensure that users “can access and get support for our service when they need it most.”

1. The message is actually still active. This is fake news.

2. Twitter does not prevent suicide.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 24, 2022

Alex Goldenberg, chief intelligence analyst at the nonprofit Network Contagion Research Institute, said prompts that appeared in search results several days ago were no longer visible Thursday.

He and his colleagues published a study in August that found that monthly Twitter mentions of certain terms related to self-harm have increased more than 500% from about the previous year, with younger users particularly at risk when seeing such content.

“If this decision is symbolic of a policy change where they stop taking these issues seriously, it’s extremely dangerous,” Goldenberg said. “It goes against Musk’s previous commitments to prioritize child safety.”

Musk has said he wants to combat child sexual abuse content on Twitter and has criticized the previous owner’s handling of the issue. But he has cut out large portions of the teams involved in dealing with potentially offensive material.

The post Chief Twit Elon Musk DENIES shutting down Twitter suicide prevention feature appeared first on WhatsNew2Day.

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