The recent waves of misogynistic shit being directed at female tweeps be they bloggers, critics or MPs (many of whom I disagree with on a daily basis, mind you) is revolting. But threats of violence, rape, murder - bomb threats!?! This goes well beyond 'trolling', this is just small boys with big egos and the sort of reactionary idiots you might expect at the average EDL rally. Thankfully there are laws against publicly threatening someone with violence and there definitely are laws against making bomb threats both of which, I hope, are pursued by the police (not often I say that). But it reminds me that once again twitter is in trouble, because twitter doesn't have a report post button.
I can't say how many times I have seen a tweet that goes too far. Not the sort of thing that pushes the boundary of comedy, I don't mind that, but threats of rape and violence against women and, indeed, children. Pictures of things that, probably, incur the wrath of the police force, or intelligence agencies, but which I have to look at, and then - when I look for a little "report me" button - I remember that Twitter, for reasons I can't begin to fathom, is completely unmoderated. Like any anonymous public forum Twitter needs to police itself, I would prefer that to the likes of MPs and the actual Police decided what we can and cannot tweet. So, I hope that this is the final straw and that Twitter starts to take itself and its responsibility as a facilitator of free speech and starts to remove the tweets which shout "Fire!" in a crowded building (and twitter is VERY crowded these days).
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