See Less Gambling Content On Twitter
Published On 30th January 2020
Gambling is rarely out of the news these days. Despite a range of efforts made by online casino, betting and sports firms to address various issues, The UKGC and UK Government continue to push for more reform in the sector. Controls of advertising and how people are exposed to bingo, casino and sports betting is one of the areas continually under review. Things like "whistle-to-whistle" bans are perfect for television but they are harder to implement on social media. Today The UKGC have teamed up with Twitter to offer ways in which users can control the level of gambling-related content you see on the platform
Twitter hasn't banned gambling content on it's platform. Given that you can find 18+ videos, racist comments and a whole suite of other issues it would be a surprise if they did ban it. However there are a number of ways you can use Twitter tools to restrict the content you see. Whilst The UKGC guidelines are aimed at gambling, the tools can be used for all subjects. Sick of The Kardashians, Nigel Farage, Katie Hopkins or Brexit? Well read on and discover how you can make your Twitter experience more enjoyable.
Unfollow Accounts
The first suggestion from The UKGC is to unfollow any accounts that advertise and/or promote gambling content. You may also want to turn off notifications so that you don't see when a particular site sends out a Tweet. This is a simple approach but it doesn't mean you will never ever see gambling content on your feed. Twitter does like to plug adverts and "things you may like" on your feed over seeing tweets from people you follow.
Another approach to consider is to manage your interests via "Your Twitter Settings". By unticking any gambling-related words such as casino, bingo, slots or betting then you will be telling Twitter to not show ads from brands with adverts in those sectors. The UKGC also advise that you can control what you see with respect to "promoted content" by sending a notification to Twitter that you're not keen on the content. On promoted content you should be able to notify Twitter or block the promoter.
Mute Words On Twitter
The mute feature is one of the best, but probably most unknown, options on Twitter. You may know that you can already mute accounts - this means you still follow the accounts but don't see their tweets. However you can also mute words! From Twitter you need to select "More > Settings and Privacy > Content Preferences > Muted > Muted Words". Then you can add various gambling words - or non gambling words if you so wish - and these will be filtered from your timeline.
As well as the above you can also mute conversations or go for the full restriction option. This is choosing to block accounts. Full details about these guidelines can be found at The UKGC. What we like about this approach is that the decisions are down to the user. They are not being imposed on everyone which is an approach usually used by The UKGC (for example credit card bans).
Show No Gambling Content
What we would like to see is a simpler approach to the above. It's feasible that Twitter could implement a "show no gambling content" option. This could populate the user's account with mute words and blocked adverts. It could also show accounts followed by the user which may tweet gambling content. The user could then decide to unfollow, mute or block those accounts. To assist things further the user could receive a reminder every 30 days to review any changes on account.
We expect that other social media platforms will follow Twitter's lead. But what next? Well we anticipate that websites will come under the spotlight. Sites like Loquax are already under strict rules and regulations but we anticipate more will follow. We have already taken unilateral steps to limit gambling adverts on sections of the site where gambling isn't the focus (e.g. on our competition listings).
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