Rape Threats on Twitter

our legal system acknowledges that publicly expressing hatred towards people risks their safety and that of others.

As long as women who argue for equality get threatened with rape and society thinks that is acceptable, there is no free speech for women.

I resent the idea that women should just put up and shut up with this behaviour. If young men see grown men getting away with this from the comfort of their own home it will perpetuate the problem. Internet means our youth can have input from non-family members all evening if they so wish, allowing these men to 'inform' them and allowing it whilst at the same time telling women to 'rise above it' isn't solving anything.

There is a vast difference between Freedom Of Speech (which, unlike in the USA we don't have enshrined in law) and hate speech.

Threats to kill are illegal in the UK. Putting them in cyberspace does not make them legal. Nor does it make them OK.

Freedom of speech is just too important to start meddling; there is currently an 18 year old in Texas facing 8 years in prison for a throw away comment. Yes the abuse is beyond the pale but an abuse button will inevitably be overused and lead to wasted police hours and increased monitoring of our social interactions.

Twitter is a private company; it has no duty of care and we are not forced to use it. Grow a thicker skin or simply get off Twitter.

And Laurie Penny is a loon.

Exactly Tunip.

Loads of radfems and lesbians have been getting this kind of stuff in these quantities for years and I think some of them are a bit at how it apparently didn't matter when it was them.

I'm sure there are loads of reasons why the press has grabbed hold of this one and I'm sure in PART it is because C C-P has long blonde hair and looks the part of damsel in distress and her campaign sounds so mild and inoffensive rather than her being one of those nasty fems who go on about male violence. (Have you noticed it keeps getting misreported as a campaign to get Jane Austen on a banknote rather than to get women on banknotes? Jane Austen being so palatable and uncontroversial.)

But at least it's finally happening. It is just so good to see such very public statements that rape threats are Not OK.

A bit that even it was an older Mary Beard being abused online nobody gave a shit.

The 2 grin faces were cos of the Toby Young comment btw.

YY Twirly It shows how normalised its become in their minds.

Twirly

They really don't seem to think there will be any consequences. They seem to think it's normal to talk about girls and women like this online.

The latest one abusing Mary Beard is a prime example. Not some 15 year old or someone hiding behind a false name/encryption but a 20 year old, privately educated uni student using their normal account who apologises as soon as someone threatens to tell his mother.

There should be a 'hide' option for Toby Young. Not on Twitter, in life.

Less than a few hours after the report abuse button was announced we have Toby Young threatening to use it to report Laurie Penny for calling him out on a comment he made about an MPs breasts.

Well of course i didnt think mysogynists would be planning to abuse it already

What is it with these social media sites not having any idea of abuse or norms? Like the whole FB banning breast feeding and mastectomy pics but allowing all sorts of other abuse pictures to be shared and companies pushing 'rape' T shirts.
Very mixed messages from these companies to an alarmingly large audience

Yes Edam, it makes them look like a company that doesn't understand Twitter

I do hope the cops take the Newsnight report seriously and interview the wannabe thug/rapist.

Twitter bosses have been astonishingly inept - they reacted as stupidly as an old firm that knows fuck all about social media. Manager locked his account, ffs. Hey, it's only women....

Apparently they said he lives in South Shields - let's hope he is waiting for a knock on the door from the police....

I would like to see offenders jailed and put on the sex offenders' register.
That should concentrate their tiny minds.

I agree with the consensus here.. No one said "just ignore it" when earlier this year a twitter user made inflammatory comments about the Hillsborough survivors and their families.

Ive seen a tweet that says on Newsnight (starting any min now on BBC2) they have tracked down one of the trolls.

Wow. Wow wow wow.

I have so much catching up to do.

Yep.

And I do think women are in denial about it.

There is a massive misogyny problem.

The idea that it's just a few nutters on the internet - in other words, STFU women, you don't have the right to be angry/ scared/ outraged - shows how widespread and pervasive misogyny is.

No-one would tell black people "it's just a few nutters on the internet". They'd take their right to be outraged seriously, as they should.

At least people actually recognise racism when they see it. They don't even recognise misogyny and women will quite happily accept some bloke mansplaining that it's just a few nutters so we should all calm down and not critique or examine or question where this visceral hatred of us comes from.

I was amazed by this too. I caught the end of a report about it on the radio and wondered what on earth she could have done or said to set them off (not that anything would have made it ok obviously but I was just wondering). She campaigned for women to go on banknotes! Just how pathetic are these men? It's astonishing. It's really clear to me that they don't just hate women, they FEAR them. They get their pants in a massive twist if a woman basically dares to do, be, say or in any way exist in a way that's not according to how these misogynists think they should.

However I don't think the issue should be rules about twitter or the internet. Sexist abuse and threats etc. should be made a crime just like racist abuse and racially aggravated assault etc are. If you take any instance of a sexist remark, attack or unequal situation and replace the role of the woman with a black person, it's instantly obvious how massively unnacceptable (and rightly so) it would be. Any kind of sexist victimisation should be made illegal in exactly the same way.

I don't think all men are like this but I do think that this isn't just extremist nutters. I know a lot of men who are deeply sexist, but "nice" on the surface, but if they thought they were anonymous or among like-minded friends might well give free rein to this stuff. I think greer was right, men's hatred of women is very big and very powerful.

That Beard thing was extraordinary. I was gobsmacked at his stupidity. One of the newspapers says she outed him - no she didn't! He was tweeting under his own name and one of her followers either knew him or found his details instantly.
Mary Beard is always very decent about this and is happy to forgive and forget after an apology, but it had been screencapped and retweeted all over Twitter within minutes.