Twitter’s UK division has modified its policies to deal with abuse and harassment following incidents that highlighted threatening messages sent to users in their Twitter feeds.
Microblogging network modified its policies in response to a flood of complaints, which include an online petition signed by about 125,000 people, that its tools used to report abuse had been inadequate.
Twitter UK general manager Tony Wang personally apologised the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through.
"The abuse they’ve received is simply not acceptable. It’s not acceptable in the real world, and it’s not acceptable on Twitter," Wang said.
The firm also reported the addition of staff to deal with offensive users and messages and also revealed plans to add an in-tweet ‘report abuse’ button to the Twitter website and mobile platforms. The button is already currently being offered on the Twitter app for iPhones.
The problem of abuse has been a hot topic in Britain since activist Caroline Criado-Perez had been hit by a stream of vitriolic tweets upon successful completion of campaigning for a woman’s face to appear on bank notes.
Recently, female journalists were also threatened on Twitter.
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