The new feature, called “Heads Up,” is the company’s latest attempt to curb harassment and abuse on Twitter. The official Twitter Support account shows off the two different prompts; one is a simple notification stating the conservation is intense and the other encourages empathy and fact-checking. The second prompt has three rules reminding people there’s a human on the other side, that facts are important to a conversation, and to be mindful of different perspectives. When asked which metrics are being used to judge what’s considered an “intense” conversation, Twitter Support responded by stating the platform has a set of criteria to determine which threads require such a warning, but didn’t elaborate further. The platform also will take into consideration the topic of discussion and the relationship between the thread author and other users. Twitter Support goes on to say that this feature is still a “work in progress.” Heads Up is the latest in a line of features Twitter has enacted to empower its users. Prior to this, the platform implemented Birdwatch earlier this year and Safety Mode this past September. Birdwatch is a community-drive effort to combat misinformation on Twitter, but critics have referred to it as a form of censorship. Safety Mode, meanwhile, is a new account setting that blocks accounts using “potentially harmful language.”
