Twitter announces new features to thwart cyberbullying

Twitter, facing pressure for not doingenough to curb abusive behaviour on its platform, said on Tuesday it would upgrade some features to better combat cyberbullying.

The company said it would expand the "mute" option to allow users to block tweets based on keywords, phrases and the contentof conversations from a user's notifications.

• Cyberbullying victim speaks out: 'It was the darkest time of my life'
• Canada's first Twitter trial highlights need to curb online harassment

The "mute" option currently allows users to block tweets from accounts.

The change will be rolled out to all users in the coming days, Twitter said in a blog post.

Twitter, which has struggled to strike a balance betweenfree expression and blocking violent and hateful speech, has
come under increasing criticism following complaints from usersthat they have been targets of abuse.

In July, Twitter permanently banned some user accounts forharassment after Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones left the sitesaying she had faced severe harassment.

Twitter said it would provide "a more direct way"for users to flag abusive content, but didn't give details.

The company also said it had improved internal controls todeal more effectively with abusive conduct reported by users.

• Twitter announces it's discontinuing Vine