In age of trolls, Twitter launches campaign to promote civility

As trolling phenomenon threatens to undermine the value of social media, popular micro-blogging site Twitter today launched a campaign to educate users on the right way of conversing on the platform.

"We find many people expressing in a negative manner. Also, there are new users who need to be told about what is the medium," said Mahima Kaul, Twitter India's public policy head, speaking to PTI.

Political activists and advocacy groups -- which according to some users cause the maximum nuisance -- are not being reached out as a part of the campaign, she said.

A company statement, however, noted that ruling BJP's IT head Amit Malviya, Congress' Priyanka Chaturvedi and parliamentarian Jay Panda are among the "influential users" who are backing the campaign.

Twitter advocates freedom of expression but would like criticism to be voiced in a respectful manner, she said.

Users will also be taught, as a part of the campaign, how to report any content they consider to be offencive.

Twitter has been doing a lot of innovation like allowing users to screen posts with certain content, Kaul said.

It has tied up with the Centre for Social Research to drive the campaign, which is targeted primarily at millenials.

It will see a lot of activity on college campuses.

Non-government organisations will also be reached out and there will also be online internships as a part of the programme, she said.

-PTI