Here's what it would take for Twitter to get serious about its harassment problem
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Vox
Publication Date
10-25-2016
Abstract
(Excerpt)
In its early years, Twitter refused to address harassment concerns on free speech grounds. But the company changed its tune a few years ago, and now it insists it’s doing everything it can to fight online harassment.
But as many using the platform know, little has come of it and enforcement of new policies had been terribly inconsistent.
The extreme levels of harassment on the site and the inconsistencies in policy enforcement gained national attention this July, when Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones threatened to leave Twitter after facing a barrage of racist and sexist tweets.
Twitter responded by permanently banning professional alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos, one of Jones’s worst harassers, and Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged that the site “needs to do better.” He announced a new formal process for anyone to get a blue check mark — a symbol that verifies that a Twitter account is authentic. In mid-August the platform announced “New Ways to Control Your Experience on Twitter,” which include changes to “notification” settings as well as a new “quality” filter.
Comments
Originally published at: https://www.vox.com/new-money/2016/10/25/13386648/twitter-harassment-explained