After a series of disturbing incidents, Twitter has introduced a "report abuse" button , making it easier to report abusive tweets on the microblogging site.
Twitter is taking a step in the right direction to stop disturbing tweets being posted on its site. The microblogging site announced Friday, the introduction of a "report abuse" button, which makes it easier to report abusive tweets. The feature was first introduced for iPhones and later for Android phones. Now, with the latest update, the new button is also available to desktop users.
The new introduction came after one of Caroline Criado-Perez's supporters launched a Change.org petition asking Twitter to make it easier to report offensive content on its site. The petition received 139,000 signatures, according to Change.org. However, Twitter officials claim that they had plans of releasing a "report abuse" button way before the petition was circulated. Criado-Perez was threatened with rape after her successful campaign to put Jane Austen on the £10 note.
"We actually started introducing the reporting function many weeks before that petition," a Twitter spokesperson told CNET, "starting with iOS apps and the mobile web, and now with Android and the desktop web."
Earlier this month, Twitter issued new rules in the wake of rape and bomb threats made against female journalists, a member of parliament and a feminist campaigner. A blog with the message also talked about rolling out the "report abuse" button across all platforms.
"We introduced an in-Tweet report button in the latest version of the iOS Twitter app and on the mobile web. Rather than going to our Help Centre to file an abuse report, users can report abusive behavior directly from a Tweet. Starting next month, this button will also be available in our Android app and on Twitter.com," the message read.
But has Twitter done enough to effectively stop abusive behavior on its website? Twitter accounts are linked to email addresses. If someone reports a particular account, the account is blocked permanently, but it doesn't take much to create a new Twitter account using an alternative email address. Therefore, to tackle this problem at its roots, Twitter needs to find a way of tracking accounts through IP addresses and blocking the IP address altogether.
"It's great that Twitter has listened," Criado Perez said in a statement sent to CNET on Wednesday. "There are still issues: users have to agree for the report to be potentially shared with the harasser and there are some boxes that could be auto-populated that aren't, but overall, this is a fantastic first step."
