Will Jane Austen's picture on an English banknote cause individual Tweets to finally include a "report abuse" button? It seems so. Late last month, several female members of the successful campaign received rape and death threats after the announcement that the author will appear on the ten pound banknote in 2017.
In response, England's "Culture, Media and Sport" parliamentary committee asked Twitter to explain how it plans to stop online abuse of those using its software. Last Sunday, in a letter to Twitter UK, opposition Labour Party's Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper labeled their policies for dealing with abuse as inadequate. "I urge you to go further and ensure that Twitter carries out a full review of all its policies on abusive behavior, threats and crimes, including more help for Twitter users who experience abuse, a clear complaints process and clear action from Twitter to tackle this kind of persecution," she wrote.
In a "We Hear You" blog post, the company acknowledged the reality of abuse and revealed plans to include a "report abuse" button for Android and desktop users (the feature is already on the iPhone app).
The "report abuse" button is a mainstay of the moderation arsenal on sites that receive high traffic. Since it is impossible to monitor every piece of user-contributed content, we rely on community members to report the violations they encounter, allowing mods to put out fires before they get out of control. The Mzinga moderation team monitors Twitter feeds for many different clients and we welcome this new feature. Of course, the next step is stopping the abusers from posting at all.
I wonder what the response would have been if they had chosen Dame Edna Everage?
(image: wikipedia)