A Twitter logo is seen on a computer screen in this photo illustration on Oct 30, 2017.
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With increasing attention to social media, Twitter’s efforts to create a diverse and balanced platform will depend as much on the employment agenda as it does on user policies, the company’s head in Asia Pacific told CNBC.
Maya Hari, Twitter vice president for APAC, said the company “has work to do” as concerns persist that social media is damaging public discourse. However, she insisted that the ambitious diversity goals would help achieve a more balanced vote balance on the site.
Hari’s comments came ahead of the US Capitol storm last week and the subsequent move by Twitter to suspend President Donald Trump’s report on fears of “further incitement to violence”.
If we, as Twitter, want to build a platform that has a place and a voice for everyone on this planet, we have to be able to represent these types of voices within the company.
Maya Hari
Vice President (APAC), Twitter
“The health of the conversation, the ability to have each voice represented, has been a major priority and strategy for us for years,” said Hari.
“If we, as Twitter, want to build a platform that has a place and a voice for everyone on this planet, we have to be able to represent these types of voices within the company,” she continued.
Establishment of a “diverse slate”
Women currently make up 42% of Twitter’s global workforce – a number the company plans to grow to 50% by 2025. By then, at least 25% of its US activities should come from under-represented minorities.
Hari said the Asia-Pacific business does not have specific minority representation targets due to the different ethnic makeup of each country. Instead, managers were asked to create a “diverse list” of employees.
Maya Hari, Twitter vice president for Asia Pacific.
“When we move outside of the US, the reality changes from market to market, depending on the local constitution,” Hari said.
Growth markets like that in Southeast Asia offer a special opportunity to implement this recruitment policy. This in turn enables employees to “bring more voices from Southeast Asia and represent them” Community projects.
Representation of the community
Twitter is currently partnering with youth gamers in Japan, women in India and indigenous communities in Australia to better represent the social media site, Hari said.
“For us, this means not only thinking about how to get the right representation within the company, but also how to get the right representation externally on the platform,” she said.
Last week’s events and evidence that social platforms were used to orchestrate the attack reignited the debate about regulating the industry and its role in promoting extremism.
We have expressed our desire to be the best tech company rather than striving to be the most diverse and comprehensive tech company we can be.
Maya Hari
Vice President (APAC), Twitter
On Wednesday, following the riot at the Capitol, Twitter banned more than 70,000 accounts containing content related to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory.
In pre-riot comments, Hari said Twitter uses a combination of “product, people, and guidelines” to ensure positive conversations are amplified and toxic conversations that need investigation.
Currently, 50% of questionable content is being proactively captured through a combination of “technology and human intervention,” while the rest has been reported by users, the company said.
The company has also introduced a number of new features, such as: B. Prompts to verify that users have read an article before sharing it.
“We expressed our desire to be the best technology company rather than striving to be the most diverse and comprehensive technology company we can be,” said Hari.
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