LONDON: Twitter’s UK general manager apologised to yesterday women attacked by “trolls” on the microblogging website, as it updated its rules on abusive behaviour.
Tony Wang posted a series of tweets saying abuse was “simply not acceptable”, after Britain’s police said they were investigating allegations made by eight people.
It comes after three female journalists said they had been the subject of bomb threats, while two received threats of rape.
“I personally apologise to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through,” Wang wrote.
“The abuse they’ve received is simply not acceptable. It’s not acceptable in the real world, and it’s not acceptable on Twitter.
“There is more we can and will be doing to protect our users against abuse. That is our commitment.”
An online petition calling for Twitter to add a “report abuse” button to tweets has attracted more than 120,000 signatures.
In a message, Wang and Del Harvey, Twitter’s senior director for trust and safety, said: “It comes down to this: People deserve to feel safe on Twitter.”
They said the clarified rules make clear that Twitter will not tolerate abusive behaviour, and an “in-tweet” report button has been added so people can report abusive behaviour directly from a tweet.
“We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such behaviour was, or could ever be, acceptable,” they wrote.
They said extra staff were being added to the teams handling abuse reports.
Britain’s Scotland Yard police headquarters said an investigation had been launched into eight allegations of “malicious communication” made on the site.
The problem of abuse by so-called internet “trolls” has been front-page news in Britain since activist Caroline Criado-Perez was hit by a barrage of vitriolic tweets after successfully campaigning for a woman’s face to appear on bank notes.
In recognition of her role, Criado-Perez appeared alongside Bank of England Governor Mark Carney on July 24, when he announced 19th century novelist Jane Austen would become the face of the new £10 note.
The 29-year-old said yesterday: “The current process is lengthy, complicated and impossible to use if you’re under sustained attack like I have been.
“Right now, all the emphasis is on the victim, often under intense pressure, to report rather than for Twitter to track down the perpetrator and stop them.
Two British men were arrested after Criado-Perez and two female lawmakers reported menacing tweets to police.
While the trolls themselves have been denounced across British media, Twitter had also come under heavy criticism for its failure to respond forcefully enough. AFP/Reuters
