Twitter is facing new problems with the release of a new feature that allows tweets to be accompanied not only with photos and videos but also with short, 140-second-long recordings. In the comments under the tweet announcing the new feature for iOS users, one netizen going by the handle Danny_Walterr reposted a tweet by another user featuring an audio track of a pornographic video and the caption "is this what y'all want?"
The reply remained unmarked as a sensitive comment for half a week until it was apparently moderated to be marked as one. But this short period was enough for some users to end up in awkward situations due to playing the audio-tweet out loud in the presence of family members.
Technically, however, Danny_Walterr used another long-existing service – Twitter's video hosting – the video just looked like it had the interface of an audio-tweet mimicking it. Otherwise, the user couldn't have retweeted it, as such features are blocked, at least for the time being, to limit the spread of graphic, violent or harmful posts.
Still, as some netizens have noted, the tweet showed that right now Twitter has no way of distinguishing, marking and blocking inappropriate content by analysing audio, which may become a problem for the platform already troubled by issues when its new feature is introduced en masse.
Some Twitterians, however, have voiced opposition to the new feature because they find it to be non-inclusive for deaf people, suggesting that even if the platform introduces audio-transcription, it might not be enough, as such systems still make mistakes.
The majority of the social media platform's users were mostly disappointed that Twitter introduced an audio messaging feature instead of the much-requested "edit" button to root out any typos in hastily written tweets.