Twitter button alert plan after vile threats against feminist

Katie Hodge – 30 July 2013

TWITTER plans to include a button for reporting abuse within every tweet, the website has revealed.

The move comes as a man arrested in connection with a barrage of hostile tweets sent to a feminist campaigner was released on police bail.
Caroline Criado-Perez faced a menacing tirade on the micro-blogging site, including threats to rape and kill her, after she succeeded in her crusade to have a woman's picture placed on a new banknote.
Police have questioned a man in connection with the torrent of abuse as Twitter faced repeated calls to ramp up its security policies.
The 21-year-old has been bailed until a date in mid-September following his arrest in Manchester on suspicion of harassment offences, Scotland Yard said.
Critics have called for Twitter to take faster and stronger action against online thugs in the wake of the abuse.
An online petition in support of Ms Criado-Perez – which urged the site to facilitate the swift reporting of threatening behaviour – has already received more than 62,000 signatures.
Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy criticised Twitter's security policies after she drew a similar barrage of threats for supporting Ms Criado-Perez.
The politician retweeted some of the sinister messages to her 30,000 followers as she warned that the "morons" behind the abuse would face justice.
Ms Creasy told BBC Radio 4's 'The World At One': "This is not about Twitter, this is about hatred of women and hatred of women who speak up."
She added: "Twitter needs to be explicit that sexual violence and sexual aggression will not be tolerated as part of their user terms and conditions."
Twitter said it had introduced a button for reporting abuse on its latest iPhone app and is now looking to expand this function to other platforms, including Android and the web.
"We don't comment on individual accounts. However, we have rules which people agree to abide by when they sign up to Twitter," a spokesman said.
"We will suspend accounts that once reported to us, are found to be in breach of our rules. We encourage users to report an account for violation of the Twitter rules by using one of our report forms."
Andy Trotter, chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said Twitter was not doing enough to combat internet trolls.

Irish Independent