Wanted: Trollbusters

No innovation in history has facilitated more communication — from the valuable and the virtuous to the vile — than the internet. Leslie Jones is a comedian and actress who stars in the all-female reboot of “Ghostbusters.” The fact that an iconic 1980s comedy starring men was remade without much testosterone was too much for some fanboys to take. Harder still for some to accept: Jones is African American.

For months, anonymous Twitter users — in modern parlance, trolls — have hurled racist and sexist insults at her. Someone posing as Jones set up a fake Twitter account in which they posted racist and sexist tweets in her name.

Jones used a Twitter tool designed to block exactly such harassment. It continued, a highly visible example of the abuse suffered by some Twitter users.

Women in particular have long complained to the service about Twitter users who answer provocative tweets, and many innocuous ones, with insults and threats, including ones that explicitly violate Twitter’s rules.

Fearing financial liability, the service swiftly removes tweets that break copyright rules — while frequently ignoring racist and sexist intimidation.

Last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted: “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform, and we’ve sucked at it for years.”

More recently, speaking specifically about Jones, Dorsey said “we need to do better.” The company unveiled new tools to help users combat haters and permanently banned a leading troll .

Last week, the assault on Jones jumped internet platforms. Hackers broke into her personal website. They posted private information, nude photographs and a grossly offensive picture of the gorilla Harambe.

Jones’ celebrity and willingness to go public prompted an outpouring of support. Many trolling victims have no such backing and, especially the young, lack the self-confidence to withstand a fusillade of abuse.

Twitter’s new anti-troll tools are a step in the right direction. It is long past time for the service and all internet providers to stop sucking, as Dorsey put it, when it comes to stopping comments that cross the line from vigorous discussion to harassment.