*By Conor White*
Twitter is getting more aggressive in its fight against hateful and abusive content.
The social media platform announced it would introduce a new algorithm to suppress tweets based on observable metadata that may indicate messages coming from known trolls.
"You've always had the ability to mute and block people yourself," said Kerry Flynn, a marketing reporter for Digiday. "What this does is take that signal, and show it less to your own followers. So it's really under their category of trying to have healthy conversations."
Twitter's algorithm will monitor the IP address of the user, how many accounts that user may have created, and how often the account has been muted by others to determine if the content should be hidden. The offending tweets will not be removed, but Twitter hopes that it can limit its users' exposure to derogatory content, and lessen the burden on users to report abuse.
"It's not completely silencing and deleting these accounts, or these tweets at all," said Flynn. "It's just showing them less to people in your network."
Twitter said the new algorithm will be introduced this week.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/twitter-gets-more-aggressive-against-hate).
The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding almost $1.7 billion in grants for buying zero- and low-emission buses, with the money going to transit projects in 46 states and territories.
With household expenses rising, going green can save you thousands. Cheddar News spoke with Sara Morrow from Consumer Reports about ways to help people slash their bills with climate-friendly home improvements.
About 61% of people who use the internet are addicted to it, according to research. Cheddar News dove in at a recent meeting for a 12-step program as part of a group called ITAA (Internet Technology Addicts Anonymous). The group ( https://internetaddictsanonymous.org/ ) was formed to help the growing number of tech addicts, with more than 6% of the globe's population now addicted, according to the University of Hong Kong.
The push for clean energy is igniting an interest in electric vehicles but charging EVs continues to be a concern for consumers looking to save. Brian Moody, executive editor with Autotrader, joined Cheddar News to discuss how people can make home-charging more affordable.
A fire at a New York City e-bike shop quickly spread to upper-floor apartments and killed four people early Tuesday in the latest deadly blaze linked to exploding lithium ion batteries.
