Media Matters: Will a new safety-first approach make life easier for Twitter’s users?

Ronan Costello, whose job is to represent Twitter to governments and the wider public sphere, says the company has been on a safety drive of late

Ronan Costello, Twitter’s public policy lead for Turkey, Israel and Europe: ‘We've been putting resources into being more proactive, and into reducing the burden on users to be the ones that are constantly reporting things to us.’ Picture: Bryan Meade

Ronan Costello wants to change the conversation around online abuse and misinformation, and he’s in the right place to do it. As public policy lead for Europe, Turkey and Israel at Twitter, his role is to represent the company to governments, non-governmental organisations and charities.

Social media giants like Twitter have come in for harsh criticism over the past couple of years, as issues such as Covid-19 misinformation and the continuing abuse directed at some ...