Twitter says 'meaningful' ways to combat abuse are coming in November

Twitter is promising to further combat abuse on its network.

The company said it will introduce more features and new policies that address safety next month, a move that comes as Twitter's reputation as a home for trolls has hit new heights — and may have even stopped the company from being acquired. The announcement came during its quarterly earnings report on Thursday.

Twitter said the team has been working for the last few months to build "the most important safety features and updating our safety policies to give people more control over their Twitter experience." The changes will be "meaningful updates" and address the "safety policy, our product, and enforcement strategy," according to its shareholders letter.

Details were sparse, but it's a strong, public commitment to a long overdue need to fix the problem. The news comes after years of Twitter facing backlash from users for harassment and trolling. In 2015, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said in an internal email leaked by The Verge that he took "full responsibility for not being more aggressive on this front."

This summer, actress Leslie Jones, who is heralded by some for her enthusiasm on Twitter, took a break from the site after facing racist attacks. That prompted Twitter cofounder and current CEO Jack Dorsey to publicly address the issue and led to the permanent ban of conservative pundit Milo Yiannopoulos.

Twitter has introduced some small changes already. In August, Twitter added two new features that give users more control over what notifications they receive and what tweets they see.

Following a report by Mashable looking at abusive online behavior on Twitter Wednesday, the company sent a statement on the complexity of balancing free speech and user safety.

Twitter is unique because it’s live, it’s open, and the world is watching. We believe that everyone on Twitter should feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, but behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another person’s voice should have no place on our platform. The topic of online safety is complex and ever evolving and, while we know there’s still much to be done, we’re making progress toward our goal of giving people more control over their Twitter experience.