Technology / Internet
Twitter updates its rules after uproar over rape, bomb threats
03 Aug 2013 at 21:30hrs | Views
Twitter has updated its rules to make it clear that abuse will not be tolerated, and has put extra staff in place to handle reports of abuse, it said Saturday.
The move comes as police revealed they are investigating allegations by eight people of abuse on the microblogging site.
Scotland Yard (UK) said its e-crime unit is looking into the claims, three of which involve incidents outside London.
Twitter found itself in the spotlight after three female journalists said they had been the subject of bomb threats on the site and two received threats of rape.
The revelations sparked a backlash online, with an online petition calling for Twitter to add a "report abuse" button to tweets attracting more than 120,000 signatures.
In a message posted on its blog Saturady, Twitter's senior director for trust and safety, Del Harvey, and UK general manager Tony Wang said:
"We have updated the Twitter Rules to clarify that we do not tolerate abusive behaviour."
"We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter Rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such behaviour was, or could ever be, acceptable. "
The statement read: "We are committed to making Twitter a safe place for our users. We are adding additional staff to the teams that handle abuse reports and are exploring new ways of using technology to improve everyone's experience on Twitter. We're here, and we're listening to you."
The move comes as police revealed they are investigating allegations by eight people of abuse on the microblogging site.
Scotland Yard (UK) said its e-crime unit is looking into the claims, three of which involve incidents outside London.
Twitter found itself in the spotlight after three female journalists said they had been the subject of bomb threats on the site and two received threats of rape.
In a message posted on its blog Saturady, Twitter's senior director for trust and safety, Del Harvey, and UK general manager Tony Wang said:
"We have updated the Twitter Rules to clarify that we do not tolerate abusive behaviour."
"We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter Rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such behaviour was, or could ever be, acceptable. "
The statement read: "We are committed to making Twitter a safe place for our users. We are adding additional staff to the teams that handle abuse reports and are exploring new ways of using technology to improve everyone's experience on Twitter. We're here, and we're listening to you."
Source - Online
