The odd case of suicide prevention resources on Twitter

Gilead

Twitter


Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[1] fair use.

For now, and for lack of a better and badly needed explanation, I’m treating this particular story as odd and unexplained. In essence, Twitter took down a banner that appeared with the results for certain searches that pointed to resources to prevent suicide. Their claim is that they were trying to improve it. The question that arises is why they had to take down the old one while developing the new one, leading to a fairly obvious suspicion that Elon Musk did not intend a replacement.[2] The supposedly new and improved version is now up, but that question remains unanswered.[3]

I haven’t heard whether the new and improved version is in fact improved. I haven’t heard whether the folks who specialize in this sort of thing were consulted on what they would like to see Twitter do. And, at least for now, I’m not hearing much at all.

Michael Race and Monica Miller, “Elon Musk: Only blue tick users to vote in Twitter polls on policy,” British Broadcasting Corporation, December 20, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64034892

Reuters, “Musk to step down as Twitter CEO once he finds ‘someone foolish’ enough as successor,” December 20, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-says-hell-step-down-twitter-ceo-after-finding-replacement-2022-12-21/

Laura Forman and Dan Gallagher, “Elon Musk Offers Worst Job in Tech,” Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-offers-worst-job-in-tech-11671648139

Suzanne Vranica, Patience Haggin, and Alexa Corse, “Elon Musk’s Campaign to Win Back Twitter Advertisers Isn’t Going Well,” Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-twitter-advertisers-exodus-11671722594

Paresh Dave, Fanny Potkin, and Sheila Dang, “Twitter removes suicide prevention feature, says it’s under revamp,” Reuters, December 23, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-orders-removal-twitter-suicide-prevention-feature-sources-say-2022-12-23/

Kenneth Li, “Twitter restores suicide prevention feature after Reuters report,“ Reuters, December 24, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-restores-suicide-prevention-feature-after-reuters-report-2022-12-24/


Jeffrey Epstein


Fig. 1. “Donald Trump with his future wife Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in February 2000.” Photograph credited to Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images, February 2000,[4] fair use.

India McTaggart and Victoria Ward, “King Charles has ‘evicted’ Duke of York from Buckingham Palace,” Telegraph, December 24, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/24/king-charles-has-evicted-duke-york-buckingham-palace/


  1. [1]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/
  2. [2]Paresh Dave, Fanny Potkin, and Sheila Dang, “Twitter removes suicide prevention feature, says it’s under revamp,” Reuters, December 23, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-orders-removal-twitter-suicide-prevention-feature-sources-say-2022-12-23/
  3. [3]Kenneth Li, “Twitter restores suicide prevention feature after Reuters report,“ Reuters, December 24, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-restores-suicide-prevention-feature-after-reuters-report-2022-12-24/
  4. [4]Martin Pengelly, “‘She say anything about me?’ Trump raised Ghislaine Maxwell link with aides,” Guardian, October 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/04/trump-ghislaine-maxwell-epstein-maggie-haberman-book-confidence-man

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