Twitter to add button for users to report abuse

twitter-bird-white-on-blue
Twitter has announced it will put in place a button with which users can report offensive tweets that have been posted on the social network.
The move comes in response to an online petition campaign
 asking Twitter to take action to protect its users from abuse. The campaign began after U.K. social activist Caroline Criado-Perez became the target of posts threatening death, rape and other violence for her efforts to have more famous women featured on British currency. When Labour Party legislatorStella Creasy
 publicly supported Criado-Perez, she too became the target of similar abusive tweets.
British police are investigating the matter and have one suspect in custody.
But Twitter users want Twitter to do its part too.
The petition
, started by Kim Graham
 of Norfolk, calls on Twitter to “start protecting its users.”
The following is an excerpt from the petition, which has garnered nearly 86,000 signatures:
"For over three days, Caroline Criado-Perez, who campaigned to keep women on banknotes, has been targeted repeatedly with rape threats on Twitter. Caroline attempted to stir a response from Mark S. Luckie, Manager of Journalism and News on Twitter. His response was to lock down his account."
"But abuse on Twitter is common; sadly too common. And it frequently goes ignored. We need Twitter to recognise that it’s current reporting system is below required standards. It currently requires users to search for details on how to report someone for abuse; a feature that should be available on each user’s page."
"It is 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.
The report abuse button needs to be accompanied by Twitter reviewing the T&C on abusive behaviour to reflect an awareness of the complexity of violence against women, and the multiple oppressions women face."
Twitter senior director of trust and safety Del Harvey said it is simply not possible for the social network to screen each of the 400 million tweets posted daily.
“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,” Harvey wrote in a blog post
.
“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.”
Twitter introduced the ability to file complaints via a ‘report tweet’ button on its iPhone app and the mobile version of its site three weeks ago and will now bring it to Android and desktop Web users as well. Previously, users had to fill out a long form to file a complaint.
“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,” Harvey wrote. “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.”
Criado-Perez, however, is still not impressed with Twitter’s efforts, and posted the following tweet:
“Just to quickly comment on twitter report abuse button. This is not progress. The form still has to be filled out.”