Twitter in apology for rape threat tweets
Print Edition
The British arm of Twitter apologized yesterday to a group of high-profile women who have been threatened with death and rape on the microblogging site, and announced measures to make it easier for users to report abusive tweets.
Twitter had come under increasing pressure to react after a feminist campaigner, several women members of parliament and female journalists were targeted by users who hurled misogynistic abuse at them, and in some cases made violent threats.
“I personally apologize to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through,” Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter UK, said on his Twitter feed.
“The abuse they’ve received is simply not acceptable. It’s not acceptable in the real world, and it’s not acceptable on Twitter,” he said.
Twitter UK said it was adding staff to help handle abuse reports. It also said an in-tweet “report abuse” button currently available on the Twitter app for iPhones would be added to the Twitter website and to platforms used on other mobile devices.
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.
Criado-Perez appeared with Bank of England Governor Mark Carney last month, when he announced 19th-century novelist Jane Austen would be the face of the new 10-pound note.
Police arrested two men over rape threats against Criado-Perez. One of them was also suspected of making rape threats against opposition Labour legislator Stella Creasy, who had supported the campaign.
In separate incidents days later, female journalists received tweets from someone threatening to bomb their homes.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service said on Friday it was investigating allegations made by eight people.
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