Twitter has long received staunch criticism over what users perceive as its repeated failure to curb toxic activities that appear on its site daily. There's sexual harassment, unsolicited pornographic images, propaganda-fueled tweets, abuse, and more — not to mention sexism, homophobia, racism, and other forms of hate speech that are rampant on the site.
Of course, those happen on nearly all social media networks, but the bandwidth of hate speech on Twitter in particular is alarmingly huge, and the company simply hasn't implemented enough curbing measures to make sure the platform is clean of foul and awful content.
Twitter Boycott
Some others have taken Twitter's shortcomings into their own hands. On Friday, Oct. 13, many accounts began a 24-hour boycott of the social network following Twitter's decision to suspend Rose McGowan's account, an actress who denounced producer Harvey Weinstein amid sexual harassment allegations.
Exactly how many users participated in the boycott remains uncertain, but it became a trending topic earlier this week, and now — Twitter has taken notice.
CEO Jack Dorsey has promised that his company will take a "more aggressive stance" in enforcing its rules, pledging to roll out significant changes in the coming weeks as a way to fix Twitter's harassment, propaganda, and abuse problems.
Twitter suspended McGowan's account after the actress posted a phone number on her feed. She has become an outspoken detractor of Weinstein, the center of numerous allegations of rape, sexual harassment, and decades-long records of sexual abuse. Actresses such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Rosanna Arquette, and a huge number of others have shared their appalling experiences with Weinstein.
Twitter eventually restored McGowan's account, but the incident nonetheless indicates the inherent issues in Twitter's handling of abuse.
What Twitter Will Do About Its Abuse Problem, According To Dorsey
In a series of tweets, Dorsey mentioned that Twitter has been working to counteract its abuse problem for two years now, and that during the boycott, he saw many voices who were silencing themselves because the site "is *still* not doing enough."
Twitter, he said, has been working hard for the past few months and has now decided to make some critical decisions on how it enforces rules. He said that there will be new policies on unwanted sexual advances, unsolicited nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that promote or glorify violence or abuse.
Dorsey has failed to specify exactly what those new rules are, but he said Twitter will share more details next week. Expect due coverage when that happens.
Thoughts about Twitter's abuse and harassment problem? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
