Twitter violence

IN Media Watch Briefs | 22/07/2016

Actress Leslie Jones quit Twitter this week after being subjected to an avalanche of sexist and racist messages following the release of the all-female remake of the iconic 80s film, Ghostbuster. When Jones, who stars in the film, brought the matter to the notice of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, some abusers were finally blocked from the microblogging site. Twitter’s suspension rules state: "When an account engages in abusive behavior, like sending threats to others or impersonating other accounts, we may suspend it temporarily or, in some cases, permanently.” However, given the violent trolling that many people face on Twitter — television personality Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai are among those singled out for the choicest abuse in our country — clearly not enough is being done to filter shockingly abusive tweets. Twitter has declared that the company is now in the process of “reviewing its policy on hateful conduct” and make it easier to report abuse. The changes are expected soon.

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