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Twitter abuse: 140 characters in search of a law Twitter abuse: 140 characters in search of a law
(about 2 months later)
"We would give you and old Mother Pankhurst (the fossil-worm) Five Years Penal Servitude and then burn you both together," wrote an opponent of women's suffrage a hundred years ago. In this less inhibited age, it is all too easy to imagine what the tone of the tweets might have been had the writer had the technology. Men hating women who seek or exercise power is an ancient trope: there were probably men muttering sexually explicit abuse at Boudicca as she drove by. The specific threats of rape that led to the arrest on Sunday of a man who had been tweeting menaces to Caroline Criado-Perez after her successful campaign to have a woman depicted on the next £10 note are an extreme example of something that, for women with a feminist profile on Twitter, has become a commonplace."We would give you and old Mother Pankhurst (the fossil-worm) Five Years Penal Servitude and then burn you both together," wrote an opponent of women's suffrage a hundred years ago. In this less inhibited age, it is all too easy to imagine what the tone of the tweets might have been had the writer had the technology. Men hating women who seek or exercise power is an ancient trope: there were probably men muttering sexually explicit abuse at Boudicca as she drove by. The specific threats of rape that led to the arrest on Sunday of a man who had been tweeting menaces to Caroline Criado-Perez after her successful campaign to have a woman depicted on the next £10 note are an extreme example of something that, for women with a feminist profile on Twitter, has become a commonplace.
It is no surprise that there are men who see the unmoderated environment of Twitter as an opportunity to project their criminal fantasies onto individual women, but it raises the hard old questions about the limits of free speech. Yet appealing as it may seem to kick away the platform from which they shout, making Twitter liable for what appears on it would risk destroying just what makes the site so valuable. A better course would be to tackle the abusers head on.It is no surprise that there are men who see the unmoderated environment of Twitter as an opportunity to project their criminal fantasies onto individual women, but it raises the hard old questions about the limits of free speech. Yet appealing as it may seem to kick away the platform from which they shout, making Twitter liable for what appears on it would risk destroying just what makes the site so valuable. A better course would be to tackle the abusers head on.
On the face of it, it seems reasonable to argue that Twitter should be treated as a publisher, legally responsible for what appears on its site. When it suspended the journalist Guy Adams's account last year after he was accused of breaking Twitter rules on privacy by tweeting the (office) email of the boss of NBC in a row over the broadcaster's Olympics coverage, it certainly seemed to come close to behaving like one. But Twitter has always held that it's a mere platform. As such, it never acts proactively, only in response to user complaints. Guy Adams's account was suspended because of a complaint from NBC (which had, it emerged, been alerted by Twitter, which was a partner in its Olympics coverage) and then restored because the complaint was rescinded. When the Tory peer Lord McAlpine was wrongly named in an abuse case, it was the individual tweeter he sued, not Twitter.On the face of it, it seems reasonable to argue that Twitter should be treated as a publisher, legally responsible for what appears on its site. When it suspended the journalist Guy Adams's account last year after he was accused of breaking Twitter rules on privacy by tweeting the (office) email of the boss of NBC in a row over the broadcaster's Olympics coverage, it certainly seemed to come close to behaving like one. But Twitter has always held that it's a mere platform. As such, it never acts proactively, only in response to user complaints. Guy Adams's account was suspended because of a complaint from NBC (which had, it emerged, been alerted by Twitter, which was a partner in its Olympics coverage) and then restored because the complaint was rescinded. When the Tory peer Lord McAlpine was wrongly named in an abuse case, it was the individual tweeter he sued, not Twitter.
But that does not take Twitter off the field altogether. Its conduct since the threats against Ms Criado-Perez began last week, increasing almost to one a minute, was a complete failure for an organisation that depends on trust as part of its business model. The first condition for the successful defence of the free speech by which it defines itself (the "free speech wing of the free speech party") must be a readiness to engage in a public conversation and where necessary to defend its decisions – in this case apparently to do nothing to block the threats or inhibit the threat-maker. Instead, complaints were met with silence, then a holding email. Only on Monday did Twitter's UK general manager, Tony Wang, promise to make the reporting of abuse more widely available than the cumbersome and restricted "report abuse" button.But that does not take Twitter off the field altogether. Its conduct since the threats against Ms Criado-Perez began last week, increasing almost to one a minute, was a complete failure for an organisation that depends on trust as part of its business model. The first condition for the successful defence of the free speech by which it defines itself (the "free speech wing of the free speech party") must be a readiness to engage in a public conversation and where necessary to defend its decisions – in this case apparently to do nothing to block the threats or inhibit the threat-maker. Instead, complaints were met with silence, then a holding email. Only on Monday did Twitter's UK general manager, Tony Wang, promise to make the reporting of abuse more widely available than the cumbersome and restricted "report abuse" button.
Quick detection followed by decisive action are the absolute minimum responses to this kind of attack. Caroline Criado-Perez is not the first, and already the Labour MP Stella Creasey, a prominent supporter of Ms Criado-Perez, and the more vulnerable for needing to be open to her constituents, is also receiving very specific rape threats. Other prominent women are trolled by people who stop short of the criminal but are still intimidatingly offensive.Quick detection followed by decisive action are the absolute minimum responses to this kind of attack. Caroline Criado-Perez is not the first, and already the Labour MP Stella Creasey, a prominent supporter of Ms Criado-Perez, and the more vulnerable for needing to be open to her constituents, is also receiving very specific rape threats. Other prominent women are trolled by people who stop short of the criminal but are still intimidatingly offensive.
Twitter plainly has a commercial interest, and arguably a moral duty, to do everything it can to protect the extraordinary forum it has created. And, as the Criado-Perez episode illustrates, it is an extraordinary forum. If its dark side is the way that it has exposed a feminist campaigner to criminal threats, it is its sheer universality that allowed her to mobilise the support that made the Bank of England think again. Twitter delivers access for all. Regrettably that means bullies and perverts too. But their behaviour is a matter for the police, or, as Lord McAlpine showed, the civil courts, against the individual, not Twitter.Twitter plainly has a commercial interest, and arguably a moral duty, to do everything it can to protect the extraordinary forum it has created. And, as the Criado-Perez episode illustrates, it is an extraordinary forum. If its dark side is the way that it has exposed a feminist campaigner to criminal threats, it is its sheer universality that allowed her to mobilise the support that made the Bank of England think again. Twitter delivers access for all. Regrettably that means bullies and perverts too. But their behaviour is a matter for the police, or, as Lord McAlpine showed, the civil courts, against the individual, not Twitter.
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