On July 24th, feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez (above, far right) led a successful campaign to have Jane Austen’s likeness printed on ten pound bank notes by 2017, in place of noted evolutionist Charles Darwin.
On the day the Bank of England announced their decision, Criado-Perez became the recipient of a deluge of rape and death threats that is yet to desist. Now Twitter have responded to the substantial outcry by promising to re-evaluate the way abusive tweets are reported across a variety of platforms in an effort to streamline pre-existing processes; to make easier the means of dealing with a kind of torrential abuse which of itself could not be any quicker or easier to commit.
After a vocal new wave of feminists made their voices heard in the UK over the weekend, a Twitter executive said the service are testing ways to report individual tweets, eliminating the lengthy form-filling process involved when dealing with individual threats of the kind received by Criado-Perez – “This Perez one just needs a good smashing up the arse and she’ll be fine”; “Everyone jump on the rape train > @CCriadoPerez is conductor”.
Also, we’re testing ways to simplify reporting, e.g. within a Tweet by using the “Report Tweet” button in our iPhone app and on mobile web.
— Tony Wang (@TonyW) July 27, 2013
The backlash has now lead to the creation of a change.org petition calling for the immediate implementation of a Twitter ‘report abuse’ button, which currently only exists on the service’s iPhone app. At the time of writing, the petition has 51,694 signatures and requires a further 23,305.
Earlier today, British police arrested a 21-year-old man on “suspicion of harassment offences” who, according to Criado-Perez, issued one tweet – allegedly a rape threat – of “about 50 abusive tweets an hour for about 12 hours.”
After a weekend of public appearances and sustained threats, including having her home address published online, Criado-Perez received a welcome home visit from one arm of the rapidly-evolving British media earlier this morning.
You know what, I was doing OK till media turned up at my door. Way to make me feel vulnerable. Staggering. Absolutely staggering.
— CarolineCriado-Perez (@CCriadoPerez) July 28, 2013
Photo: Getty Images News
