Twitter’s latest robo-nag will flag “harmful” language before you post

Enlarge / Before you tweet, you might be asked if you meant to be so rude. (credit: Getty Images / Sam Machkovech)

Want to know exactly what Twitter's fleet of text-combing, dictionary-parsing bots defines as "mean"? Starting any day now, you'll have instant access to that data-at least, whenever a stern auto-moderator says you're not tweeting politely.

On Wednesday, members of Twitter's product-design team confirmed that a new automatic prompt will begin rolling out for all Twitter users, regardless of platform and device, that activates when a post's language crosses Twitter's threshold of "potentially harmful or offensive language." This follows a number of limited-user tests of the notices beginning in May of last year. Soon, any robo-moderated tweets will be interrupted with a notice asking, "Want to review this before tweeting?"

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