In the United Kingdom, a local activist campaigned to get Jane Austen on the British 10 pound bill. They say no good deed goes unpunished. This one sure didn’t.
This odyssey started when a woman named Caroline Criado-Perez led the fight to get the late 18th-early 19th century novelist and women’s rights activist on the 10 pound note. Not long after this became official (Austen’s face will be on the bill around 2017), Mrs. Criado-Perez started getting vile tweets. Many of these tweets threatened her with rape. This evil tweets increased to around 50 an hour! But what made it worse was Twitter’s slow response. She reported this abuse on Thursday, but according to her own testimony, it took until Monday to respond. Monday, police made an arrest in the case. Also, this case got so much attention a petition went around. This petition demanded Twitter add a ‘report abuse’ button for all potential cases; it got over 65,000 signatures.
I commend this petition and Caroline Criado-Perez for staying on top of Twitter in this. To their credit, Twitter has answered these cries. They promised to make a ‘report abuse’ button more available to all users. I hope they do this sooner than later. Think of all the bullying cases that have led to suicide?over?Twitter abuse. There have been celebrities like Sherri Shepard targeted by cowards hiding behind Twitter. They don’t have the guts to confront people to their faces with such evil. Shepard also reported this to the police. A more affective ‘report abuse’ button may not eliminate the problem all together, but it’s a start. What do you think can be done to combat such ugliness?