Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has frankly admitted that his company has done a terrible job of dealing with trolls and abusers. And he’s promised to do better, declaring that Twitter would “start kicking these people off right and left.”
In a remarkably candid note to concerned staffers, obtained and posted online by The Verge, Costolo was blunt about Twitter’s failure to protect its users from harassers:
We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years. It’s no secret and the rest of the world talks about it every day. We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day.
He’s got that right.
Costolo went on to accept personal responsibility for this failure:
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.
And he pledged to go after the harassers much more aggressively:
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.
In a followup note, he again took personal responsibility for the problem, and assured staffers that his promise to boot the trolls and harassers would be more than an empty declaration:
[T]he truth that everybody in the world knows is that we have not effectively dealt with this problem even remotely to the degree we should have by now, and that’s on me and nobody else. So now we’re going to fix it, and I’m going to take full responsibility for making sure that the people working night and day on this have the resources they need to address the issue, that there are clear lines of responsibility and accountability, and that we don’t equivocate in our decisions and choices.
Let’s hope he lives up to this promise. Facebook made a similar promise to crack down on hate speech in 2013, but hateful sexist and racist material is still posted regularly on that platform with no repercussions.
And everyone who has tried to report harassment and abuse on Twitter knows how hard it is to get Twitter to taken any actions against harassers. And even when harassers’ accounts are banned, the bans are often temporary, while those who are permabanned can simply start up new accounts to continue their harassment and abuse.
Costolo’s notes came in response to a discussion on an internal message board about feminist writer Lindy West’s recent Guardian article and This American Life segment dealing with the harassment she’s gotten on Twitter. Costolo made clear that he’s acutely aware of the media coverage and criticism of Twitter’s lackluster attempts to deal with the trolls who so often turn Twitter into a kind of “hate amplifier.”
In other words, Twitter is responding to this problem because the targets of Twitter harassment and abuse are talking about their experiences publicly.
The “don’t feed the trolls” approach that is so often advocated by those who try to minimize and/or excuse the harassment does not in fact work; indeed, “not feeding” trolls encourages them, by making clear they will face no repercussions for their abusive behavior.
“Don’t feed the trolls” FEEDS THE TROLLS.
Everyone who is legitimately concerned about trolling online owes a debt of gratitude to Lindy West and the numerous other targets of harassment — most of them women — who have spoken up publicly about their experiences, putting themselves at risk of even more harassment.
And we owe a debt of gratitude as well to Jaclyn Friedman and the others at Women, Action and the Media who also put themselves at risk when they stepped forward to assist Twitter in dealing with its harassment problem.
Let’s keep the pressure on Twitter and on other online platforms that have been used as hate amplifiers. That’s the only way to ensure that the people running these platforms actually do anything to curb the hate.
“Don’t feed the trolls” FEEDS THE TROLLS.
Where were you when I was looking for a good example of irony for my grade 10 English exam?
Like I so often say…best way to starve a troll is to pull his plug. Ignoring him IS feeding him.
I hope they go about this the right way, though. I mean, what’s to stop the same troll sockpuppeting in order to dodge the banhammer?
Also, I’m worried that simply taking down threats and abusive tweets could hinder victims in collecting evidence against persistent harassers.
It’s been the huge volume, and blatant instances of trolling that have allowed it to be acknowledged as a serious problem… I jut hope that “Don’t feed the trolls” doesn’t just turn into “So just report and block” when there’s an actual credible threat against the person IRL. I can just imagine law enforcement shrugging it and leaving it to Twitter to delete the comments / accounts rather than address the potentially dangerous individual behind them.
But it’s about bloody time that Twitter addressed its shoddy housekeeping. Especially if it spoils the fun of Mssrs Cernovich and Yiannopoulos and all the other shit-heels using Twitter as their own personal hate machine.
Some people have also brought up the issue that this same system could be used against the very people it was meant to protect.
How can you protect someone from harassment if they’re being reported for it by their harassers?
It’s like that GG Vigilante guy who said that Brianna Wu was stalking him instead of the other way around.
Awesome news. Let’s hope they can succeed.
There is already crying an gnashing of teeth over freeze peach. Love it.
Well, there was a time when ‘don’t feed the trolls’ worked.
That time was well over 20 years ago, on Usenet, when most people only had one account (usually handed out by the University they were going to), there wasn’t a whole lot of anonymity, and losing that account would be a major problem. A lot of trolling was just practical jokes, thrown out onto the net to see who bit. Readership was in the low hundreds of thousands, built up over years so older folks could keep the newer folks in line. There were semi-enforced societal attitudes, and anybody who went seriously over the line could be reported to the institution providing their account, or at least banned by moderators. It took administrative access somewhere to create your own group, and nobody else had to carry it.
Then came the rise of the Web and the infamous ‘September that never ended’.
Most of the more modern stuff is active harrassment, in that they are focusing on one or more targets and going full bore with a load of disposable accounts so they don’t care if one gets burned. They’ve formed their own societies and echo chambers so they don’t have to deal with outside rules: anybody can make a website and even 1% of 1% of the population means thousands of people playing off each other and egging each other on.
‘Don’t feed the trolls’ hasn’t worked for a full generation now, and the new generation of trolls not only knows that, they know that ‘don’t feed the trolls’ used to be a valid attitude so they use that to give themselves cover.
Because trolling, like any other bullying or violent crime, is a social activity. When I was at school I was bullied relentlessly, and having heard the ‘they’re trying to get a reaction from you’ idea I refused to respond. I did not look at them, say anything towards them, even acknowledge their existence for a straight year and did they stop? Did they fuck. If you want to stop bullying you have to confront the problem head-on, drag the bullies out into the limelight and under the boot of the nearest authority.
Exactly, Film.
You call that shit out loud and clear. Most of the trolls or bullies don’t want people to know they’re actually shit people. Because that would really hurt them. So they jeer you from the sidelines.
Bring on the attention, watch them shrivel up and squirm under a microscope. Some will turn inward and ask themselves “Why the fuck am I doing this? Why don’t I like this? Why did they turn on me? What did I hope to gain out of this?”, but others still will grow silent.
I was also given that “solution” in childhood, Film Runner – it’s so damaging to be brushed off with “just ignore them”. Even apart from just not working, it teaches you that your own feelings don’t matter and that the responsibility is on you to just take it rather than have anything done about it. I’ve no doubt that the subsequent learning to bottle up my emotions led me to my (now thankfully treated!) anxiety problem today. (The idea of having hurt feelings being viewed as inherently shameful and feminine is a separate, but related thing that I’m proud to support feminism for opposing.)
It’s infuriating to still see this poisonous attitude spread by people saying “Sticks and stones will break your bones” and the like. It’s very encouraging that raising awareness of harassment has led to someone taking notice, though time will tell if things change!
While I’m at it, has the First Amendment ever been cited correctly in an argument in the history of time? I mean, I’m not American and even I seem to know what it says better than any of the Twitter users who are suddenly upset that they won’t be able to send whatever death threat they like any more.
I think the pervasive attitude that trolls just want attention is not true. Or it’s only true for the more harmless trickster type of troll who says ridiculous things to provoke reactions.
The trolls that spew hate speech, harass, or threatens are different. They are trying to traumatize their victims. They want to silence people by scaring them or overwhelming them. They want to gaslight so that compassionate viewpoints seem crazy and irrational and cruel viewpoints seem normal. When we tell people not to feed these trolls, we’re reinforcing the troll’s pov. The victim is weak and crazy for reacting to a deluge of hate. The trolls are a part of the landscape. Something normal to be expected.
I think ‘don’t feed the trolls’ still has a place – starving trolls of their immediate gratification can be very useful. But as this post points out, you have to go to the second level and then report on their negative behavior to effect change in how they’re dealt with. Once Twitter realized that ‘core’ (i.e.; productive and profitable) users were being hurt by destructive assholes, they had to step in. Or, at least pay lip service to stepping in. We shall see.
The K-8 school I went to in the 80s and 90s was mostly great. It was progressive. Besides math and spelling, textbooks weren’t relied on much. History was covered from the viewpoint of the oppressed. Not just rich white men. I grew up knowing Columbus wasn’t a hero. Something a lot of kids didn’t get.
My one beef with them was the terrible way bullying was handled. If you went to a teacher with bullying, they just wanted you to talk it out. That tactic actually worked great with squabbles between friends. But telling a bully how their abuse made you feel doesn’t work. They want to make you feel bad! I’m guessing the policy has changed in recent years.
I particularly liked the “ignore the bullies” advice because it always came from teachers and principals. “What do you expect me to do about it?” I don’t know; you only run the damn school.
I always got a strong sense that the bullies’ right to an education was more important than mine, because even if administrators knew they were deliberately doing things that disrupted my school experience, they wouldn’t do anything that might disrupt their school experience, such as removing them from class.
I think the “don’t respond to bullies” thing started out as effective, but when bullies learnt that when their victims say nothing it means they’re successfully bothering them that’s when it all went to pot.
My high school was awful for bullying policy. I’ve always wondered if one reason schools don’t like to take action against bullies is in case their parents stomp in bawling “How could you do that to my special snowflake?!” (It wouldn’t surprise me if bullies deliberately lie to their parents about their behaviour at school). I know that the mother of my bully frequently volunteered on school trips which was why there were reluctant to take action against her little brat.
I think there should be a team of people who just comb through the twitters of people who face harassment on a daily basis like Sarkeesian, and whenever she sends off a report of harassment, they can act. I figure if you focus on those people, you can get the trolls who just use their twitter to harass others, too. Bit talk I know.
See, ignoring people who are teasing you is effective.
I was teased a lot, but it was horribly ineffective because I am less than observant. I would give them a blank stare and say something along the lines of “…that’s bad?” or “what are you talking about?” regarding whatever I was being teased about. Legit did not know what they were going on about, and as far as I was concerned the were spouting word salad so the words they were saying didn’t bother me. I mean, they were pestering me, they were about as annoying as some running up to you and saying “APPLE COOKIE MONKEY POOP!” laughing and running off. WTF?
Bullies take it one step further – there’s actually malice there. People teasing want a reaction, regardless of what it is, but bullies want you to feel bad. People running up to and yelling “APPLE COOKIE MONKEY POOP!” at a regular basis will eventually make you feel bad regardless of it you understand. I did get bullied a handful of times when I was a kid (mean girls kind of stuff), but I went to my mom and was like “this thing happened and I don’t know why?” and then the teachers got involved and they stopped.
I checked out the A Voice for Men page on Facebook, and it deeply saddened me. Not only are these people (women as well as men) delusional and entirely lacking in empathy for the female gender (something that, contrary to popular belief, is not true of feminists in regards to the male gender), but they also fail to realize that an entire page dedicated to attacking others is not the same thing as posting/writing articles about factual events actually happening in the world (which is what happens on feminist pages). Women are accused by these people of being illogical, and yet this is a basic failure of logic, even if they could somehow defend their indefensible beliefs (although those mostly fall in the category of “not even wrong,” they are so divorced from reality). My question (if anyone wants to hazard a guess) is, how do people become like this? And just how many are there out there who think this way, and to such a degree?
Lenora is right. You generally couldn’t get a USENET account unless you were affiliated with some institution like a university. Persistently harassing a specific user or posting death threats or rape threats would get you reported to your institution. Traditionally, trolling was more about being disruptive and using absurd and over-the-top insults than threatening or emotionally abusing people.
Silence is consent, case closed. Commence troll bombing
“How can you protect someone from harassment if they’re being reported for it by their harassers?”
You have actual human beings (several) who read any tweet or series of tweets reported as harassment. You have them comparing the content of the tweets to a standardized definition or checklist of what constitutes harassment. That way you aren’t relying on a bot to count the number of times a tweet is reported and taking that as proof that something is harassing. That way you can distinguish between IMA COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND CHOKE YOU BETCH and “look at my new motorbike isn’t it kewl”.
Determining whether or not something counts as internet harassment requires humans. It’s far, far too easy for people – especially members of a dedicated internet harassment campaign – to abuse an automated system.
People who troll online tend to be marked by the “Dark Tetrad” personality traits, particularly sadism. citation
Those that motivated primarily by narcissism(another of the dark tetrad) could be believed to be contained and controlled by measures limiting their “reward” in the form of attention, as the old “Don’t feed the trolls” slogan goes. But when it comes to the primary motivation, there can be little doubt that it’s actual enjoyment of the suffering of others. Not only that, but studies of those who have sadistic personalities suggest that they will often sacrifice other value to cause harm to others.
That is to say, as long as the troll has reason to believe they are causing anguish, they are likely to continue. At least for most trolls.
@Dan kasteray – I don’t know where you’re getting “silence is consent”. Okay, that’s not true, I can see why “speak up, expose this” could strike you that way. Listen, I totally understand (and I’m willing to bet most people here can understand too) why a victim of internet harassment would rather just “go dark” and not give their harassers any more ammo. And I can understand why some victims of internet harassment would rather that attention *wasn’t* called to their particular case, because again, more ammo. That’s a call every individual has to make for themselves.
But it’s also true that shutting up and going away doesn’t always make it stop, and it’s true that this issue is getting more attention because some individuals have come forward and said “can you believe this is happening to me over videogames/critique/other fucking trivial bullshit?”
In the not so distant future the last of the MRAs manages to survive alone in his hovel with nothing to console him but his heavily worn copy of Atlas Shrugged and a bag of Fritos. Some nights, if the wind blows just right, you can hear the creature sorrowfully lamenting, “But threatening to rape and murder women is freeeeeee speeeeeeeeech!”
OMG, are you me? Because that’s exactly what I went through, too. Telling me to ignore them was like telling me that my being bullied, harassed and made miserable wasn’t worth troubling the authorities about. In other words, it reinforced the bullies’ essential message: You are a nobody, and your worth is nothing. Nil. Nada. Zippo. ZILCH.
If I had been taught how to yell better insults back, how to fight tooth and claw, how to fearlessly march into the principal’s office and name names, I would have had a much easier time of it any which way. But nope. Girls don’t get any lessons in physical courage AT ALL. I was taught to be quiet (which my introverted nature of course made all too easy), say nothing, don’t fight, blah blah. Nobody benefited from that but the bullies. To this day it outrages me every time I see that same “don’t be such a bother, just ignore them” attitude being trotted out. Ignoring does NOTHING. I often think I should get that tattooed on my ass so I can turn around and moon the next person who says “Ignore them” to me.
By contrast, I’m kind of glad my teachers were old-school types in that respect, and never forced me to make nice with my harassers. The last thing I’d have wanted was to talk to the bullies about my feelings. Why strip away the last shred of a victim’s dignity? They already knew they had hurt me, and just didn’t give a shit for how I felt, because I was the designated outcast and, as I said above, worth nothing to them. I wanted them taken down a peg, not boosted up further. And I wanted them to leave me alone after that.
As you say, “talk it out” is a method best suited to friends having a tiff. And not everybody IS friends, at school. That became more and more clear to me the older I got. In kindergarten, it may have seemed that way, but by the time I got to middle school, I would have been more than happy to turn my back on certain kids for evermore. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to do that until graduation.