Twitter left abusive posts online despite pleas from victims
TWITTER declined to take down abusive and threatening posts aimed at prominent campaigner Colm O’Gorman and crime journalist Michael O’Toole as the posts did not breach their guidelines.
Journalist with the Irish Daily Star Mr O’Toole made a complaint to the social media giant after anonymous account ‘Ganglandmurder1’ posted an mock photo showing the reporter lying in a coffin.
He also complained that the account alleged that Mr O’Toole was running anonymous Twitter accounts on behalf of the Kinahan crime gang, which caused him to fear for his safety.
Eight minutes after making the complaint on Wednesday night, he was contacted by Twitter to say it did not consider these tweets to be abusive.
Twitter’s response was: ‘We have reviewed your report carefully and found there was no violation of the Twitter rules against abusive behaviour.
‘Some tweets may seem to be abusive when viewed in isolation, but may not be when viewed in the context of a larger conversation. The number of reports we receive does not impact our assessment of whether something violates the Twitter rules.
‘In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we do not tolerate the behaviour that crosses the line into abuse including behaviour that harasses, intimidates or uses fear to silence another users’ voice.’
It took Mr O’Toole highlighting the response to his 17,600 Twitter followers for the company to finally delete the tweet. As of last night, the anonymous account could no longer be found on the social media platform.
‘Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, I thought that sort of crossed the line, especially in relation to a crime reporter,’ Mr O’Toole told RTÉ’s Today With Seán O’Rourke yesterday. ‘I’ve had real threats in real life so my security is something I’m very conscious about.’
Activist and executive director of Amnesty Ireland, Colm O’Gorman also told the programme how Twitter failed to act on a number of abusive tweets he has been subjected to from a certain user.
When his initial complaint was rejected, Mr O’Gorman complained again after receiving further abusive tweets the account in question had posted in the meantime. This second complaint was also rejected.
He shared online a screenshot of the abusive tweets and Twitter’s initial response, prompting an outraged response from his Twitter following.
Later he got an email from Twitter to say his complaint had been reviewed and the account in question had been suspended under their hateful conduct policy.
He said: ‘I’m blessed in that I’m a particularly resilient individual and I don’t give into it, but on a regular basis I get threats to my life, to my physical safety.
‘I get appalling things said about me, language like a “perverted rent boy”, references to my family, to my children. My children have been named, where we live has been named, accusations of being a sexual predator, just extraordinary stuff.
‘As much as I admire love and enjoy the platform, the platform permits it, it facilitates it and it doesn’t take responsibility.’
It comes as Senator Catherine Noone is calling for a duty of care obligation to be introduced for social media firms.
Ms Noone, who is a Fine Gael election candidate in Dublin Bay North, said she was hopeful social media networks would pay ‘heed’ to recent calls for them to do more in tackling online abuse but there has been no ‘significant’ change or progress.
She said a duty of care obligation on social media firms would ensure ‘they do more to help protect people from online abuse and harassment’.
Twitter said: ‘Twitter is continuously working to ensure users feel safe when using our service, and that the public conversation online is healthy and civil.
‘Between 2017 and 2018, we have launched more than 30 policy, product, and operational changes to ensure people feel safe when expressing their views on our service. Fewer than 1% of accounts make up the majority of abuse on Twitter.
‘We’ve introduced technical measures to help surface these accounts more quickly, and to make them less visible. Our work is continuous and it requires a societal response, both on and offline, to help encourage more healthy, civil public discourse.
‘When a complaint is seen as not being in breach of Twitter’s rules against abusive behaviour, the account user is given the opportunity to provide more context to the complaint and have the case re-reviewed.’
But Mr O’Toole accused Twitter of allowing a free-for-all on the platform. ‘They are just letting people say what they want.’
Mr O’Gorman agreed: ‘To threaten people with rape, or death, or assault, to reveal people’s identities or addresses or locations, to incite acts of violence or aggression, to try to intimidate and silence people, that’s not reasonable discourse and Twitter’s platform facilitates that and they need to take responsibility for it.’ Comment – Page 14 lisa.o’donnell@dailymail.ie