Posts Tagged ‘ Twitter sexism ’

When Anil met Pax

Sep 14th, 2013 4:36 pm | By

You remember how that went, right? Anil Dash tweeted

Wow, didn’t realize @businessinsider had hired such an asshole in @paxdickinson. Getting memcache to build made him an expert on misogyny!

Pax responded with the inevitable “you gonna say that to my face?” so Anil said sure, so they met. Anil tells us about it.

People who know me know that my offer was sincere, because while I was not trying to get Pax fired (though I certainly am not sorry that he was, and everyone including Pax agrees it was the right decision), I was definitely trying to find some way to understand if a constructive form of accountability could be attached to this incredibly shitty

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The purpose of trolls

Aug 1st, 2013 12:09 pm | By

Amanda Marcotte comments on the BBC Newsnight – Paul Mason – Twitter harassment campaign story to point out that misogynist harassers have an agenda.

But as awful as trolls are, they do serve a major purpose, if people are willing to accept that these are actual people expressing actual opinions, instead of imagining them, as too many people do, as almost a force of nature that the internet willed into existence and not people at all. That purpose is revealing that misogyny exists and it is widespread. Understanding that, I think, makes clear why so many other things exist: Rape culture, fundamentalist religions, the Republican Party’s guns-and-abortion obsession. There is a sea of boiling anger out there because men are

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Frankly incandescent

Jul 29th, 2013 2:56 pm | By

The Telegraph has more.

The social networking site’s move came as a female MP called in police over rape threats she received via Twitter and detectives continued to investigate similar highly offensive messages sent to a feminist campaigner.

Caroline Criado-Perez, a writer, faced a deluge of online vitriol, including warnings that she would be killed, after she successfully lobbied for a woman to appear on a British banknote.

The trolls also targeted Stella Creasey, the Labour MP for Walthamstow in east London, for speaking out in support of Miss Criado-Perez.

Miss Creasey said she was “frankly incandescent” at Twitter’s response to the vile abuse she suffered over a 24-hour period.

One user threatened to rape her and “put the

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Criado-Perez Twitter abuse case leads to arrest

Jul 28th, 2013 11:54 am | By

A guy has been arrested over the deluge of threats aimed at Caroline Criado-Perez on Twitter.

The 21-year-old was detained earlier in the Manchester area on suspicion of
harassment offences.

Oh yes? Interesting.

Via her Twitter page on Sunday evening she said she was at a police station making a statement and that there were “many more threats to report”.

The Metropolitan Police said an allegation of “malicious communications” had been made to officers in Camden on Thursday.

An online petition set-up in response to the abuse called on Twitter to introduce a “report abuse” button and received thousands of signatures.

Labour said on Sunday that it had written to Twitter complaining that it had been “weak” to tell Ms

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Chasing Twitter

Jul 27th, 2013 6:17 pm | By

Wuhay – Stephen Fry is on board.

Hurry up @twitter @biz and you in charge. Shouldn’t be hard http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23477130 …

From that BBC article -

A petition calling on Twitter to add a “report abuse” button has received thousands of signatures.

It follows a deluge of abuse and rape threats received by Caroline Criado-Perez, who successfully campaigned for women to be included on UK banknotes.

MP Stella Creasy told the BBC she was “furious” Twitter had yet to do anything about Ms Criado-Perez’s abuse.

It’s completely typical of Twitter though. Also Facebook.

Ms Criado-Perez’s cause has been supported by other prominent tweeters, including the journalists Caitlin Moran and Suzanne Moore and Independent columnist Owen Jones.

Ms Moran has called for

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A deafening silence from Twitter

Jul 27th, 2013 12:03 pm | By

The Independent reports that Twitter is facing a major backlash for not responding to abuse. I am pleased to hear that – Twitter has been crappy about dealing with one kind of abuse I get there, and it’s so crappy about offering ways to deal with other kinds that I didn’t even try.

A host of MPs and other leading public figures have threatened a boycott after a feminist campaigner highlighted numerous threats of rape and other violent acts being sent to her on Twitter. Caroline Criado-Perez, who finally won her fight to have prominent women represented on Britain’s bank notes this week, claimed that her complaints to the site have been ignored.

A petition was soon set up

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