Rape Threats on Twitter

me too Yoni.

He came over as being worried that he may be deprived of the freedom to harass.

The nob.

As I watched I wondered if he said those stupid things because he was scared of getting banned from Twitter for harassing women.

'Toby, no-one's going to stop you making remarks about MPs' tits. I kind of hoped you were going to stop doing that on your own'

Stella came across as articulate and clever. Toby came across as a bumbling fool as usual

Loved it.

So (illegal) harrassment shouldn't be banned??
He does talk out of his arse doesn't he? What's with the lying about what she's said??
And then he's comparing stopping rape threats to censorship China style?? Wtaf?

Toby Young is an area, who spectacularly missed the point. Stella wiped the floor with him.

Not only did Toby come out with "what about the menz" he totally gaslighted Stella by saying that she said that abuse against men was ok.
She said nothing of the kind.
She totally got the better of him here.
When ppl gaslight i always wonder how they treat others offline.

Tuesday july 30th 2013 in Scottish Law Reporter. Inquiry called off as crown office refuse to prosecute son of top Scottish judge, who made rape threats to women on twitter. Robyn Walker was the target of a series of lurid and threatening messages when her boyfriend signed for a rival football team. Scotlands top judge Frank Mulholland refused to prosecute. One of the tweets quote hope you get raped and murdered in Glasgow. Question if the establishment male dominated cover this type of thing up what hope is there

Why on earth do some men get so worked up about women being high profile?

yes. why is campaigning for a woman to be on a banknote, something you would want attack?

there are many changes people would like to see in the world, that I personally don't agree with, but (1) I don't care they are campaigning for what they think should change (2) this campaign does not require anyone to change their own life in any significant way.

Women don't have a monopoly on victimhood. Much in the same way that trollery isn't solely a male affliction. And for the record, men are also subjected to online abuse, threats etc. But of course, we're conditioned to think otherwise.

You are missing the point in spectacular fashion. Why should anyone put up with it? Why are certain people - yes, mainly they appear to be men - so afraid and threatened by other sections of society, so much so that they want to kill and rape them, and say so in graphic detail?

I think if there is a "hot link" to the page for filing a complaint about violation of terms of service, that would be a good thing. I don't think a button that "fast tracks" complaints or even one that "flags up" concerns would be a good thing, or workable.

It would increase "traffic" to twitter management, who seem not to have the capacity to deal with concerns already being raised. In the days before Twitter and Facebook, I was active in a small friendship/discussion board that introduced an "inappropriate" button, thinking this would help with moderation of "problem posts." The idea was that if a post got a certain threshold of "inappropriate" clicks, it would be temporarily deleted and the member could be temporarily suspended until the moderators could look into the situation. You can imagine what happened next and no, it didn't work. It created more work in the end for moderators and alot of ill feeling and accusations amongst the membership about who did what to whom. That was on a site with fewer than 1000 members.

Tunip I think it was mentioned that some radical feminists did not support the idea of a report button as they feared it could be used by those who disagree with them in an effort to push them off Twitter. It could be used by Twitter members who are popular or in the public eye to encourage their followers to "push the button" on contributions they don't like (whether or not they break terms of service.) In any case, even if the button is just to "flag" posts that could be dodgy, it will still be those who are already most privileged, most supported, most influential who will have enough supporters to generate enough interest in investigating a tweet or member. It will make little difference for the "small fry" of Twitter.

For those saying, "All manner of folks get abuse on Twitter," that is true, but in this case, we are specifically talking about people who are abused because of who they are and the nature of that abuse relates specifically to who they are - i.e. raping a woman, having a disabled person put down, Black people should be assumed to be criminals until proven otherwise, etc. It's not just having a go at someone for what they say. It's having a go because of who they are, and the threats are "backed up" by the views of many within society - not just some random rantings.

Yes good plan

After all, it surly wouldn't take much for a moderator to work out that "i am gonna rape you" is a ban-worthy post. Not exactly a grey area!

I think if they were going to do the 100 reports then it should just flag up profiles to be dealt with as priority, rather than banned/suspended based on the reports alone.

Yes i suppose my button would get misused.

I just think it is the veil of anonymity which is allowing people to do this stuff, which doesn't seem to happen on Facebook so much (real names)

And Mumsnet can manage its trolls - so why not Twitter (though vast, I realise)?

Thanks for comments Sinistersal - interestingly, those who used real names in the "mong" type debates (eg Ricky Gervais and Frankie Boyle) have seen their careers go right downhill as there is still social opprobrium at work: there ARE still decent people around too

Wonder if there is a campaign idea here for Mumsnet?

That must be so horrible sickofsocalledexperts

How do you get into that mindset? Is it just a few eejits who think that, or is it actually quite a common way to think and there are a few eejits who say it?

It does say something about society, and it's worth analysing in whatever guise, and whoever is the target.

The flip side to the 100 reports would beit's handing a weapon to both 'sides' ifywim, people ganging up on 'good people' eg Feminists or disability rights campaigners or even One Direction fans. I'd imagine you would get loads of hateful stuff being left to stand because of 'free speech' and 'valid viewpoint' and all the rest. You'd still need a mod, or many mods, to analyse the interactions and see what really is going on with all the subjectivity that implies.

Yup, it's people in less privileged groups.
The men who I have seen get it include disabled men, gay men, and Muslims.

I haven't seen anything like the same type of abuse directed at straight white non-disabled men though. Being laughed at for being a public schoolboy and bald is really not the same, though some of the more obtuse ones will claim it is.

'100 reports and you are outed' would just become a vehicle for bullying. It would be used against precisely the people we want to protect. The trolls, on the other hand, would change sockie account more regularly so they never made it to 100 reports.

moistened So in context of this thread, what exactly is your point? That women getting rape threats should put up and shut up because men get threats too?

It is certainly not just women who feel the brunt of the twitter fuckwittage - as mum to a special needs kid, I saw real bile and vicious "retard/mong" type insults unleashed recently by those charming wits, Ricky Gervais and Franke Boyle. These trolls will have a go at anyone for shock value, safe behind their cowardly pseudonyms

Wish Twitter would install a "100 reports and you are outed" button

Moistenedbint.

I don't think of myself as a professional victim either. Unfortunately, it's not down to what I think. It's what my attacker thought, and did, that makes me a victim. It seems like you think it's somehow shameful or weak to be a victim of someone else's criminal actions? Which is illogical, at best.

Women don't have the monopoly on anything really. But this thread is about online threats of sexual violence. In the context of a society in which one in four women experience sexual violence, and it usually goes unpunished, it's a distinctive dynamic to explore. Differences/similarities/comparisons to RL interactions etc

Interesting name btw

Why on earth do some men get so worked up about women being high profile?

Women don't have a monopoly on victimhood. Much in the same way that trollery isn't solely a male affliction. And for the record, men are also subjected to online abuse, threats etc. But of course, we're conditioned to think otherwise.

Yes it's just a handful of men but it's ALL women who remain afraid - afraid of speaking out, afraid of doing anything remotely feminist - because we don't know which ones are the "nutters", which ones are decent men or which ones don't really care.

Many women (myself included) don't regard themselves as professional victims actually.

"but I think if people had to lose their anonymity online, it would pretty much be the end of this culture of vile threats"

Some of the people sending threats have been doing so under their real names.