Twitter is finally taking things seriously as the company’s CEO has promised to tackle abuse and trolling on its platform.
Twitter is one of the most widely used social communication tools out there and its power to democratize information, help people, spread messages and transmit in real time is simply amazing. But with great power comes …great potential for abuse, a fact only known too well by trolls and their victims.
In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Dick Costolo, Twitter’s CEO took personal responsibility for the company’s inability to deal with abuse properly. Every day tens of thousands of users, predominantly women, are bullied, threatened and insulted by a sea of cowards who hide behind anonymous usernames and convoluted policies.
I"m frankly ashamed of how poorly we"ve dealt with this issue during my tenure as CEO. It"s absurd. There"s no excuse for it. I take full responsibility for not being more aggressive on this front. It"s nobody else"s fault but mine, and it"s embarrassing.
Costolo went on to reiterate that he takes personal responsibility for these issues and that he will do whatever it takes so that the people working on this problem will have all the resources they need.
We"re going to start kicking these people off right and left and making sure that when they issue their ridiculous attacks, nobody hears them.
It’s been way too long and there have been too many stories of abuse and threats on the platform. If the company is serious about tackling the problem this will also likely result in greater attractiveness for advertisers and users alike.
If Twitter manages to make its users feel safe the company will be more valuable than ever.
Source: The Verge