Twitter's 'suicide prevention feature' is still active, says Elon Musk

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has said the #ThereIsHelp feature was still active and claimed that news regarding its removal is fake. However, Twitter's Head of safety Ella Irwin told Reuters that the feature has been in fact “temporarily removed”. She further said that the company is fixing and revamping its prompts and in all likelihood they expect the feature to be back by next week.

The #ThereIsHelp feature which is used to show contact information for support groups and charities is believed to have been taken down in the last few days. The feature is supposed to promote the work of organizations in many countries including those dedicated to working in sectors of mental health, natural disasters, coronavirus, vaccines, and freedom of speech.

One former employee of Twitter, Eirlani Abdul Rahman, said the sudden disappearance of #ThereIsHelp was very disconcerting and profoundly disturbing. He said that even if improvements were being carried out, such an important feature would normally be kept online and not taken down entirely.




One group called - AIDS United, which was promoted by this feature said its removal resulted in a sharp decline in traffic to a web page that the feature #ThereIsHelp is linked with.

The SpaceX and Tesla boss has been vocal about his commitment to ensuring that Twitter is a safe platform for its user and has committed specifically to combating child abuse content. However, his recent move of firing thousands of employees has impacted many relevant teams of the social media platform.

FAQs:

1. For how long has the #ThereIsHelp feature been missing?
   The #ThereIsHelp feature has been missing for a few days.
2. Why was the #ThereIsHelp feature removed from Twitter?
   The feature has been removed temporarily while the social media platform is doing some revamps on its prompts and trying to improve its approach while learning from Google’s approach on similar issues.