You've seen Twitter's new "Fleets" feature, which is basically the same thing as stories on Instagram, Facebook, and SnapChat. It allows users to post less permanent messages that will auto-expire after 24 hours. Well, Twitter announced another brand new feature to get excited about! It's—
...
Wait. Are you a white man?
Yeah, just close your eyes and hum softly during this part. This doesn't apply to you.
Twitter plans to launch a new "audio spaces" feature by the end of the year.
Twitter was light on details, but described its feature as a live audio space where multiple people can communicate and discuss or debate a topic. The company emphasized it would like people to feel safe and comfortable in these spaces, although didn't elaborate on what controls that could result in.
Twitter told reporters that the initial rollout was going to be limited, the Independent reporting that,
"Currently, that function is being rolled out to women and people of colour before reaching Twitter's wider user base. If it proves successful, the feature will be coming later this year."
"Twitter said its feature will initially only be rolled out to a "very small group" of women and those from marginalized backgrounds, both of which are disproportionately impacted by abuse and harassment on the platform, the company said."
It is interesting that the notion that the app would be made unavailable to a group of people based on their race and gender did not seem, in the eyes of the reporters and editors, to be particularly noteworthy and was passed off deep in the stories as an afterthought as opposed to a headline.
Racism and misandry, mainstreamed!
