Elon Musk ‘orders Twitter to remove suicide prevention feature’ | Twitter

On Dec 24, 2022

Twitter has removed a feature in the past few days that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, according to two people familiar with the matter, who said it was ordered by new owner Elon Musk.

The removal of the feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, has not been previously reported. It had shown at the top of specific searches contacts for support organisations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, Covid19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression.

Its elimination could add to concerns about the wellbeing of vulnerable users on Twitter. Musk has said that impressions, or views, of harmful content are declining since he took over in October and has tweeted graphs showing a downward trend, even as researchers and civil rights groups have tracked an increase in tweets with racial slurs and other hateful content.

Twitter and Musk did not respond to requests for comment on the removal of the feature.

Washington-based Aids United, which was promoted in #ThereIsHelp, and iLaw, a Thai group featured over freedom of expression support, both told Reuters on Friday that the disappearance of the feature was a surprise to them.

Aids United said a webpage that the Twitter feature linked to attracted about 70 views a day until 18 December. Since then, it has drawn 14 views in total.

Damar Juniarto, executive director at Twitter partner Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, tweeted on Friday about the missing feature and said “stupid actions” by the social media service could lead his organisation to abandon it.

I am mad to know that today Twitter stop the #ThereIsHelp Search Prompt for Freedom of Expression in Indonesia (and globally?)

Another stupid decision after the dissolvement of Trust and Safety Council last week.@nickpickles @kathleenreen @moranweea https://t.co/WkoujDVfu4

— Damar Juniarto (@DamarJuniarto) December 23, 2022

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Reuters could not immediately establish why Musk would order the removal of the feature. The sources with knowledge of his decision declined to be named because they feared retaliation.

One of them said millions of people had encountered #ThereIsHelp messages.

Eirliani Abdul Rahman, who had been on a recently dissolved Twitter content advisory group, said the disappearance of #ThereIsHelp was “extremely disconcerting and profoundly disturbing”.

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

In part due to pressure from consumer safety groups, internet services including Twitter, Google and Facebook have for years tried to direct users to well-known resource providers such as government hotlines when they suspect someone may be in danger.