Category: General|Mar 30, 2021 | Author: Admin

Slack blocks public DM ‘invite messages’ after backlash

Share on

Concerns over the potential harassment of individuals prompted Slack to swiftly change how its new direct messages feature works.

Slack moved quickly this week to make changes to its public direct messaging feature after a backlash highlighted the potential for harassment from people sending abusive messages.

The Slack Connect DM feature, unveiled in October, became generally available to paid users of the platform on Wednesday. It enables Slack users to send an invite to someone outside of their Slack “workspace,” which, when accepted by the other party, allows direct messages to be exchanged in the chat app.

The invite is sent to the recipient’s email address with a button to “accept” the invitation. Prior to Slack’s changes, the sender could also include a text message to the recipient within the invite.

However, Twitter users quickly pointed out how the feature could be abused, with the ability to send harassing messages. Since the invite emails are sent from a single [email protected] account — blocking them means all Connect DM invites are then marked as spam.

Following the backlash, Slack said it would no longer allow messages to be added to Connect DM invites, thus preventing abusive ones from being included in the invite email.

"After rolling out Slack Connect DMs this morning, we received valuable feedback from our users about how email invitations to use the feature could potentially be used to send abusive or harassing messages," Jonathan Prince, Slack’s vice president of communications and policy, said in a Twitter post on Wednesday.


"We are taking immediate steps to prevent this kind of abuse, beginning with the removal today of the ability to customize a message when a user invites someone to Slack Connect DMs.

"We made a mistake in this initial rollout that is inconsistent with our goals for the product and the typical experience of Slack Connect usage. As always, we are grateful to everyone who spoke up, and we are committed to fixing this issue." 


The feature is part of the Slack Connect platform unveiled last June; it enables up to 20 companies to communicate in a shared workspace.

Slack admins must “opt-in” to use enable Slack Connect. Once enabled, the Connect DM feature is switched on by default, though it can be disabled for users by changing permissions settings to prevent the invites from being sent or received. Admins can also restrict the sending of DM invitations to “verified organizations” only.

According to the Slack help center site, admins can disable the Connect DM feature for users by changing permissions settings for DMs to prevent the invites from being sent or received. Admins can also restrict the sending of DM invitations to “verified organizations” only.

A Slack spokesperson said that while it is not currently possible to block individuals, the company continues to explore new ways to “empower our users and give our admins more granular tools to take action on harassment or otherwise unacceptable behavior.


“That being said, if harassment is occurring on our platform and your employer is unable to intervene, we encourage you to contact us via Slack’s Help Center to report your concerns and we will investigate and take appropriate action,” the spokesperson said.

Slack plans to extend access to Connect DMs from paid customers to all free users later this year. 

“The ability for Slack users on a paid plan to direct message others extends the abilities and the possibilities in streamlining the flow of work,” said Wayne Kurtzman, a research director at IDC. “It could still be transformative with a proper launch.”

The launch of the feature on Wednesday was “uncharacteristic” for Slack, said Kurtzman, and — with the company awaiting regulatory clearance for its $27.7 billion acquisition by Salesforce — could have been hampered by limitations of a company being in a pre-acquisition mode.


“The user base has been waiting on this feature for some time, and perhaps Slack got the reaction it needed to properly roll this feature out with the privacy elements that people expect,” he said.

Sponsored Ads:

Comments:


Locked out 8 million Telegram users, then this happened

Category: IT|Mar 28, 2024 | Author: Admin

Mac update fixes important bugs

Category: Apple|Mar 27, 2024 | Author: Admin

The Windows Format Dialog Remains Unchanged After 30 Years

Category: Microsoft|Mar 26, 2024 | Author: Admin

Google's new AI search results promotes sites pushing malware, scams

Category: Google|Mar 25, 2024 | Author: Admin

YouTube ordered not to talk about it

Category: IT|Mar 24, 2024 | Author: Admin

It became too difficult for Apple

Category: Apple|Mar 23, 2024 | Author: Admin

Windows 11 Notepad finally gets spellcheck and autocorrect

Category: Microsoft|Mar 22, 2024 | Author: Admin

This is how Android 15 gets better

Category: Google|Mar 21, 2024 | Author: Admin

Warns Apple

Category: Apple|Mar 20, 2024 | Author: Admin

Microsoft again bothers Chrome users with Bing popup ads in Windows

Category: Microsoft|Mar 19, 2024 | Author: Admin

Increased by 164 percent

Category: IT|Mar 18, 2024 | Author: Admin

Anthropic launches its fastest and cheapest AI model yet

Category: IT|Mar 17, 2024 | Author: Admin

What is Darwin AI and how could Apple use its new tech?

Category: Apple|Mar 16, 2024 | Author: Admin

DO NOT update Minecraft!

Category: IT|Mar 15, 2024 | Author: Admin

Did you experience the problem? Now it is fixed

Category: Microsoft|Mar 14, 2024 | Author: Admin
more