Twitter to remove 'like' tool in a bid to improve the quality of debate

[brooklynite]

Source: The Telegraph

Twitter is planning to remove the ability to "like" tweets in a radical move that aims to improve the quality of debate on the social network.

Founder Jack Dorsey last week admitted at a Twitter event that he was not a fan of the heart-shaped button and that it would be getting rid of it “soon”.

The feature was introduced in 2015 to replace “favourites”, a star-shaped button that allowed people to bookmark tweets to read later.

Similar buttons to “like” or show appreciation of people’s status updates, pictures and videos have become a central function of every popular social media service since Facebook introduced them.


Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/28/twitter-remove-like-tool-bid-improve-quality-debate/

[irisblue]

1. But no edit feature @jack

[ck4829]

2. I like the 'like' feature. Here's a better way of improving the quality of debate...

Get rid of the Nazis on Twitter.

[knightmaar]

3. This reminds me of the "climate change solution" of increase Daylight Saving Time

i.e. we're not doing anything, but, "Boy, does it look like we are!"

[iluvtennis]

12. +++ agree.

[C_U_L8R]

4. Verify accounts.

If Twitter wants to restore trust, they need to verify accounts so we're sure people actually are who they say they are. Maybe even verify with a credit card. That'll sift out some of the bots and trolls.

[brooklynite]

5. I'm fairly sure that @TheTweetofGod isn't...but it's still a good account.

What they could do is have personal (verified), institutional and "creative" (appropriately fkagged) accounts.

As for the bots, the ones that follow me are very polite...

[Va Lefty]

6. How about a STFU button to use on trumpers?

That would "improve the quality of debate"

[iluvtennis]

13. I use the Block button for that. But a STFU would be nice too. :-)

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Twitter can't decide

if it's news or social media, so it tries to be both. Food fights break out.

[marble falls]

8. I think its a mistake.

[MineralMan]

9. It is quite impossible to moderate a place as big as Twitter.

It can't be done. If they're going to remove anything, it should be the "comment" button, not the "like" button. It is the level of discourse in comments to Tweets that the ugliness shows most plainly.

I am using Twitter these days, after letting my account be dormant for several years. I'm not using it for political things, though. I don't do politics on open social media - just on DU. Not on Facebook; not on Twitter. I hide those who do. The Internet needs a calm, peaceful place where people can talk about things that interest them. It really has none of those that are open to an extensive audience.

Such a place should require verified real names and photos attached to every account. No hiding behind avatars and fictitious identities. Insults and bullying should be countered by simply banning people who do that, and everyone should be able to flag such behavior for a personal review that includes asking the person being bullied if they feel bullied by that other individual.

It is the pretense of anonymity that emboldens people. We need some places where anonymity is not permitted. Those who don't like that needn't participate in such a place.

[brooklynite]

11. Um, you want Donald Trump to be able to post without our ability to respond?

[Peachhead22]

10. Horrible Idea!

IMO

[GulfCoast66]

14. That not the Tool Twitter needs to eliminate.

[Takket]

15. Maybe they should worry about hiring REAL moderator s to

Get rid of nazis.

[DeminPennswoods]

16. The question is, is it better to have the haters exposed

to the disinfectant of sunshine or not?

[Sunlei]

17. excellent idea, & add spam controls- so bots can't post 1,000 tweets a minute

poor old trumpie & kellyannes 'social media business' won't 'like' that.

[Snellius]

18. Ultimately it's not Twitter et al, it's the tweet peeps whose blind hate spews this shit.

What the socials have gone is expose openly like never before, the toxic ignorance of so many people who only think in simplistic either/or, us/them memes and whose arrogance never questions that they might be wrong. Free speech is free speech even for those we don't want to hear but words are actions and words follow ideas that are just as dangerous as any crime where someone does harm to another. Likes or not likes or retweets help polarize the process into the kind of binary metrics that Twitter's business model can understand. And make money from.