Diagnosing Twitter: 230 proposals to measure the platform’s “health”

In recent years, Twitter has finally begun coming to terms with the reality that its platform isn’t always a place for healthy conversations. The company’s latest attempt to tackle its endemic abuse and harassment manifested last month, when CEO Jack Dorsey called for ideas. Dorsey asked how could Twitter measure the “health” of conversation, and wanted to know which metrics Twitter should use to do so?

David Gasca, Twitter’s product manager for health, tweeted today that the company has received more than 230 proposals–spanning issues like misinformation and healthy discourse:

Thank you everyone who submitted @Twitter Health proposals! 230+ proposals from institutions globally across topics: echo chambers, bots/misinformation, healthy discourse, info analyses & more. We’ll be reviewing over the coming weeks & will follow up with semi-finalists then! https://t.co/IVffcigEcF

— Gasca ???????? (@gasca) April 16, 2018

We don’t yet know how much new insight Twitter will glean from these proposals, beyond what we already know to be true about its conversational health. But it seems only fitting that Twitter should open itself up to crowdsourced feedback–both positive and negative.