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From The Wall Street Journal:
Twitter has long let its users speak their minds on its service, often calling itself the “free-speech wing of the free-speech party.”
So one organization is taking it into its own hands to police certain “hate words” on the social network.
Last week, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation began an anti-homophobia campaignto scold Twitter users who use words like “fag” and “gay” in a negative way. When those words are used, the AHF, under the Twitter handle @h8fulwordskill, sends a response telling the user to be more thoughtful. The campaign’s objective is to combat hate speech on Twitter.
The response has been mixed. Some users have fired back. In one instance, a usercalled the account “queer.” In another, a Twitter user replied, “Stop lecturing people. Tolerance is a two-way street.” Briabe Mobile, the Los Angeles multicultural mobile advertising firm that developed the monitoring tool, said some offensive tweets were subsequently deleted.
@h8fulwordskill @MikeSamFootball Stop lecturing people. Tolerance is a two-way street.
— Chris Barnhart (@ChrisBarnhart) February 24, 2014
Briabe uses a monitoring tool usually reserved for big brands such as Home Depot to measure a social media campaign’s reach and impact. For the AHF, the tool identifies when certain keywords are being used on Twitter and sends a tweet back to the user. Cashmere Agency, the creative advertising agency behind the campaign, said this is the first time the technology is being used to promote a social cause… Read more.
