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

[SinisterSal]

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.

[sickofsocalledexperts]

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?

[MurderOfGoths]

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.

[sickofsocalledexperts]

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!

[KRITIQ]

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.

[HesterShaw]

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?

[FasterStronger]

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.

[liam1]

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

[JaneMumsnet]

We thought you would be interested to see Stella Creasy MP and Toby Young head to head on this Newsnight this week

[Darkesteyes]

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.

[edam]

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

[MurderOfGoths]

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?

[HoikyPoiky]

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

Loved it.

[TunipTheVegedude]

'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'

[YoniTime]

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

[BitBewildered]

Poor old Toby. He made himself look rather foolish, didn't he?

I was shocked at the abuse Mary Beard got a few months ago, which was horribly sexist. It's all part of the same problem isn't it? How do we fix society? How do we show these arseholes that we are all equal?

[BasilBabyEater]

me too Yoni.

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

The nob.

[TunipTheVegedude]

I am a little bit cynical and I do think the fact that it is happening to a nice young woman with long blonde hair who has been campaigning for something so anodyne as Jane Austen on a banknote (well, actually women on banknotes but they've all been reporting it as a campaign for Jane Austen) brought out protective instincts in the men who run the media. They could probably imagine their daughters in Caroline's position. Whereas rape and death threats to cropped-haired middle-aged dykes never seemed to bother anyone much.

I think it probably helps that C C-P was in the news last week for the banknote victory because it enabled them to put a face to it, so they'll have gone 'What? Her? '

And as Edam (I think) said, silly season when the newspapers are short of stuff to report.

[TunipTheVegedude]

also - to give Caroline Criado-Perez a bit of the credit she deserves - the fact she is so articulate and media-competent will have made it a lot easier to report.

Also, there are the very many active feminists on Twitter and elsewhere online who put a LOT of effort into publicising what was happening - the person who screencapped the tweets into a blog which John Prescott forwarded to the BBC, for instance.

Maybe also the fact that Caroline Criado-Perez has an existing set of people who supported her banknotes campaign and The Women's Room in general will have been a big factor. Easier to mobilise an existing group of supporters than to create a new one from scratch.

I guess everything just came together.

[TunipTheVegedude]

and last thing (because I'm banging on) Caroline Criado-Perez' tenacity over the whole thing. It would have been so easy for her to say 'OK I've done enough now' but she has kept going. She's an amazing woman.

[LaGuardia]

Isn't it possible to turn the twitter thing off? Or is one forced to read everything, like some kind of torture?

[SinisterSal]

Yes of course LaGuardia - didn't you know?

[scallopsrgreat]

'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' My favourite bit

I think your last reason has a lot to do with it Tunip. The energy Caroline has helped generate over this has been incredible. She absolutely has not given up.

[KaseyM]

Loved Stella's demolition job.

What I don't love is reading the Yahoo comments behind the rape threats story to find just how much these men hate feminists and find ways to blame them for just about anything.