Twitter apologises for '#bisexual' search error
Twitter has finally come back with an apology and an explanation for the "bisexual" search mistake.
Some users had noticed the platform's search tool had banned photos, videos, and news results for terms like "#bisexual."
Twitter said it had identified the error and were working to resolve the issue.
Now, the company explains what went wrong. "We apologize for anyone negatively impacted by this bug. It is not consistent with our values as a company,” it said on its support account.
In order to identify sensitive content, Twitter has a list of terms that frequently appear besides adult content. But many of the terms on the list "are not inherently explicit" so the company uses other signals to establish whether the content is sensitive.
"Our implementation of this list in search allowed Tweets to be categorized based solely on text, w/out taking other signals into account," Twitter said. "Also, the list was out of date, had not been maintained and incorrectly included terms that are primarily used in non-sensitive contexts."
"When all Tweets containing certain terms were incorrectly collapsed on the photos, video and news search tabs, the search results in those tabs returned an error message indicating that no content was available," it continued.
The company said it updated the list, removing terms that should've been there, and the changes will be live in 24 hours.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
However, a quick search on Twitter in the UK for #bisexual photos, videos, and news shows the error isn't fixed yet:
Topics X/Twitter
