My friend and fellow Collective Shout activist Talitha Stone has launched this petition calling on Twitter to add a report abuse button to tweets. Please support this brave and gutsy young woman.
In June this year, I was subjected to an horrific torrent of abusive tweets from fans of rapper Tyler Okonma on twitter when I challenged his lyrics which encourage rape and violence towards women. The abuse was unbelievable. It included direct threats of rape, and at one point, twitter users tried to publish my address. Worse, I was told by police there was no way to stop it other than deleting my account: letting the abusers win.
Nothing has changed. Recently, Caroline Criado-Perez, who campaigned to keep women on banknotes in the United Kingdom, has been targeted repeatedly, with rape threats over three days because of her campaign. We have to be able to change this – and urgently.
Women should be able to speak out without facing threats of rape and assault.
I’m asking for your help to get Twitter to urgently add a Report Abuse Button to tweets on all platforms. It won’t fix everything – but it’s a good start. We know they’re listening – but they need to move quickly – this is out of control.
At Tyler’s concert, he told his fans he hoped my children got STDs, and “dedicated” songs to me that included lyrics like “punch a bitch in her mouth just for talkin’ shit” – the people who responded to his call to arms are still free to do to everyone else on twitter what they did to me.
It’s time Twitter took a zero tolerance policy on abuse, and learns to tell the difference between abuse and defence. Women standing up to abuse should not fear having their accounts cancelled because Twitter fail to see the issue at hand. This behaviour would have people banned from other public spaces – it’s barely acknowledged as being wrong on twitter.
Please sign my petition to ask Twitter to urgently add a Report Abuse Button to tweets on all platforms.
Statement from twitter:
We hear you
Monday, July 29, 2013
At Twitter, we work every day to create products that can reach every person on the planet. To do that, we must take a wide range of use cases into consideration when designing interfaces or developing user tools. We want Twitter to work whether you are trying to follow your favourite musician, talk to others about shared interests, or raise the visibility of a human rights issue.
We also have to think about scale and volume. We see an incredible amount of activity passing through our systems – there are more than 400 million Tweets sent every day worldwide. Those Tweets not only appear on our site and in our apps, but are also embedded into the fabric of traditional and digital media.
The vast majority of these use cases are positive. That said, we are not blind to the reality that there will always be people using Twitter in ways that are abusive and may harm others.
While manually reviewing every Tweet is not possible due to Twitter’s global reach and level of activity, we use both automated and manual systems to evaluate reports of users potentially violating our Twitter Rules. These rules explicitly bar direct, specific threats of violence against others and use of our service for unlawful purposes, for which users may be suspended when reported.
To the extent that our system is based around the filing of reports with our Trust & Safety team, we strive to make it easier and more practical to file them. Three weeks ago, we rolled out the ability to file reports from an individual Tweet on our iPhone app and the mobile version of our site, and we plan to bring this functionality to Android and desktop web users.
We are constantly talking with our users, advocacy groups, and government officials to see how we can improve Twitter, and will continue to do so. Such feedback has always played an important role in the development of our service. We hope the public understands the balances we’re trying to strike as we continue to work to make our systems and processes better.
Del Harvey, Senior Director, Trust & Safety
See also: ‘You f—-ing whore’: what happened when a young activist took on a US rapper, MTR, June 9, 2013
2 Responses
Absolutely! Great work!
Unfortunately demanding male owned Twitter to create an ‘abuse button’ will not automatically curtail mens’ pseudo sex right to send women messages threatening them with male sexual violence.
The issue of mens’ pandemic hatred/contempt for any woman, men perceive as challenging male power and male right to dominate and control women continues not to be seen as a violation of all womens’ human rights.
Racism and homophobia are rightly perceived by mens’ Male Supremacist System as ‘incitement to hatred of non-white groups and/or hatred of homosexuals’ (and even lesbians but women as usual are invisible). Yet issue of mens’ pandemic hatred/contempt for women is not seen as an issue by men because ‘it is only women’ who are the ones being targetted by women-hating males. Reason is because racism and homophobia include males and when issue negatively impacts on males then it is ‘a male human rights issue!’ Men as usual are the ones who decide what does and does not constitute ‘promotion of hatred of certain subordinate groups.’
Demanding male owned Twitter take action is just one step but there needs to be a huge socio-cultural change concerning mens’ belief they are entitled to subject any woman they wish, to sexually degrading insults and/or threats of male sexual violence.
The issue is about mens’ continuing war on women because women’s sex is female not male. Men en masse don’t need to constantly engage in sending sexually degrading messages to women because it only takes a few men to constantly bombard women who courageously speak out on women’s rights issues, for all women to become afraid they too will be targeted if they challenge male individual and/or male institutional power. This is the real issue – male socio-economic power over women is sacrosanct and women have no right to demand an end to male domination over all women. Also men as a group know their chances of being prosecuted and convicted for sending women sexually degrading insults/male threats of sexualised violence are almost zero. Therefore men have accorded themselves impunity to continue to sexually degrade women and girls because we females are not supposedly human!
What really needs to happen is for the male dominated governments and legal institutions to make promotion of male hatred/male contempt for women a ‘hate crime.’ Promotion of racism and homophobia is a ‘hate crime’ because as I explained above, men are targeted by other men, but male hatred of women is not a ‘crime.’
But male dominated governments, legal institutions and other male controlled structures will not act because they know they will incur the wrath of other men and this is how male domination over all women is maintained. Plus men who hold political power do not want women to have even a tiny amount of said power because that would immediately upset men’s status quo!
Until such time as women en masse speak out and denounce those men as virulent, violent women-haters nothing will change. Holding men to account is not what men want or like because men know as long as focus is on women and why they are supposedly ‘provoking/causing’ men to retaliate, then the issue of pandemic male hatred/contempt for women remains hidden out of sight.
This male backlash against all women is occurring because women have finally managed to wrest a few tiny fundamental women’s human rights from male control and any curtailment no matter how small of male power is sufficient for men to immediately bombard women with male threats of sadistic male sexual violence.
Don’t be fooled because women do not live in a ‘liberal; equal society, because male violence against women continues to be pandemic and yet our wonderful Male Supremacist System (sic) continues to proclaim ‘these are isolated incidents not male retaliation against women because their sex is female!’ Men continue to deny the systemic pattern of male violence against women because men have to deny male domination over women exists, in order that men can continue to dominate and control women with impunity. How this operates varies from culture to culture but end result is always the same – male domination over women is ‘natural and hence cannot be changed/eliminated!’
So what can we do? Name mens’ hatred/contempt for women as ‘male hatred/contempt for women’; support women who bravely do hold men to account. Collaborative female action is not what men want because men know if women band together their voices will be very powerful and they will threaten male domination over women. Divide and conquer is mens’ Male Supremacist Mantra and it continues to work.
What can men do? Those men who claim not to be ‘women haters’ must cease standing on the sidelines and hold other men to account. But men know this means challenging male power and most men believe issue isn’t about them because they aren’t routinely sexually degraded or dehumanised since only women are ‘non-humans’ according to Male Supremacist System.
Equality is another male created myth because ‘equality continues to be defined by men for men’s benefit, wherein women are expected not to challenge men but instead attempt the impossible task of becoming ‘like men but remaining non-threatening to male power.’
Eliminating mens’ created Male Supremacist System is the only effective method but given Male Supremacist System has existed for thousands of years it will take more than demanding Twitter to create ‘abuse button’ for male domination over women to cease or even begin to be curtailed. This is the reality but it doesn’t mean we women should give in’ because there will always be some women who refuse to submit to male domination and men know this which is why men have to constantly wage war on women. The male dominators can never rest easy because they know they will never force all women to become mens’ disposable servants/slaves.