Rape Threats on Twitter

[BitBewildered]

I've just seen this story on the BBC news app. I've not been on Twitter very much lately and am off to have a look now, but at first glance, what the actual fuck?!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23477130

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

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

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

aufaniae, thanks! I've signed that one too. I am feeling a bit fed up at the number of petitions I've felt the need to sign lately. These things seem so glaringly obvious to me.

Thanks for the Mary Beard link. That was appalling too!

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

Twirly

Stella Creasy MP has been receiving rape threats on Twitter aswell. What on earth is going through their minds?!

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.

Twirly

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

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

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

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.

Exactly Tunip.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Threats YES of course they should be taken very seriously.

Im very worried about the fact people are being arrested in their homes for "offensive" language..

WTF happened to freedom of speech?? So now its illegal to offend people?

It's illegal to threaten people with death and violence.

Obviously but I don't think its illegal to be offensive - yet.

GoodTouch I'm not aware of anyone being arrested for just being offensive. As far as I'm aware the arrests have been for those who've made threats.

GoodTouchBadTouch - I don't know what the man who was arrested said but I can guarantee it will have been something a lot worse than 'fuck off you bitch' and the kind of stuff we would normally consider merely offensive.

Have you seen everything that Caroline Criado-Perez and Stella Creasy have retweeted? This isn't about people being offended.

Ill try and find it.. I cant remember the details now, but I know it happened a while back

I'm talking about the man arrested the other day. What happened in Texas has nothing to do with this.