Twitter is under pressure to make it easier for users to report abuse after more than 54,000 people petitioned the company over the case of a feminist campaigner who says she was repeatedly threatened with rape.
Caroline Criado-Perez helped lobby the Bank of England to make a woman the new face on the country's £10 note, to defuse criticism that women were under-represented on the currency, with Jane Austen chosen in the end.
Criado-Perez was then "targeted repeatedly with rape threats" by ill-wishers objecting to her activity, according to the petition, which called on Twitter to urgently add a 'report abuse' button to its service.
Some users proposed a one-day boycott of Twitter on 4 August to protest against what they said was its failure to address the issue. Labour MPs also wrote to Twitter complaining of its "weak" response after the firm told Criado-Perez to take her complaints to the police.
Twitter's general manager for the UK, Tony Wang, said the company was testing ways to make it easier to report abuse from within tweets.
"We're testing ways to simplify reporting, [such as] within a tweet by using the 'Report tweet' button in our iPhone app and on mobile web," he said.
He also promised to suspend all accounts found to be in breach of its rules. "We take online abuse seriously," he wrote.
He added that victims can currently report each case of abuse through Twitter’s online forms – but others pointed out this was impractical when high-profile users receive hundreds of messages a day.
Policing the web
Twitter notes in its support documents that users may also want to contact police. "If an interaction has gone beyond the point of name calling and you feel as though you may be in danger, contact your local authorities so they can accurately assess the validity of the threat and help you resolve the issue offline."
Criado-Perez took that advice and last night a 21-year-old man from Manchester was arrested on harassment charges.
"Trolls don’t run the internet; neither do abusive men who issue rape threats to get women to shut up," Criado-Perez wrote in The Independent. "We are the majority. And if we stand firm, and shout back as one, we will win."
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