Armchair Activist

A few days ago I took a bump to the head. And by that, I mean I accidentally whacked my head against the wooden door frame of a shed, multiple times until it culminated in one final blow which made me cry and punch said shed in a fit of emotion. I'd say I suffered for about two days after. Partly because the top of my head was bruised in such a way that a gentle breeze hurt. Partly because my personality took a minor detour towards selflessly wanting to help thy neighbour.

I took to Twitter to vent my rage at how Twitter is being mistreated at present. Within 10 minutes I had signed an online petition, vowed to join a Twitter boycott and shared my activistic opinions regarding 'trolling' with my followers. All within half hour of waking up and hearing the news of journalist Caroline Criado-Perez being inundated with rape threats. I lost two followers.

Following the story from its beginnings last week, through to the time of writing, is incredibly interesting if you like studying the evolution of stories. Last week, this story was originally the successful campaign by Caroline Criado-Perez to get a female back on English tender. Then some men who obviously felt women were getting ideas above their station, decided to send rape threats to her. And then people complained. And more men sent rape and death threats to more high profile females on Twitter. Then, on July 31st, one man tweeted bomb threats to three female journalists. As understated as this sounds, it got VERY out of hand.

Criado-Perez was getting up to 50 rape/death threats an hours. These people done so with anonymity due to not using real names and using pictures found through Google searches. They thought they were safe to say what they liked without repercussion. But within a few days, a Manchester man was arrested. So, of course this deterred people, didn't it? No. They got worse, and more women were involved.

These are all crimes which everyone appreciates is illegal in the real world. Walking up to a woman - or anyone - in the street and telling them you're going to rape or kill them, or even tell them there is a bomb outside their house which will detonate at a specific time, will get you arrested. However, it is still illegal online, and I don't appreciate why people are carefree online.

I love Twitter. The thought of it getting into this state upsets me. I don't want it to go the way of Bebo, with it being filled with profiles pictures of tumbleweeds, and have people in years to come, look back at Twitter in embarrassment. I hope that will never happen, but I fear that is what will happen. Why should people stick around to be abused in such a vulgar why? If the women leave Twitter, I'm leaving too.

It's easy to blame Twitter (and of course they can still help to put a stop to this behaviour), but the issue lies with the users. What is wrong with our society? Where has this resentment towards strong-minded women come from, and why the sudden desire to try and bring them down a peg or two? Maybe these men don't like how they are portrayed as a weaker sex in Boots adverts; I just don't know. However, that is an issue that also needs to be resolved. Why do these idiots, who I'm surprised can even spell, want to cause so much upset with females?

From a technical viewpoint, Twitter needs to have a better system for reporting such abuse, and should find ways to put a stop to completely anonymous users. Perhaps a system where they have to enter real names, but have the option to keep that information private. Making it easier to identify people who break the law.  These trolls are a disgrace to the other type who occupy the underneath of bridges. Even more of a disgrace to the trolls with brightly coloured hair.

I am pro the option to allow users to report specific tweets, or other users, for abuse. There needs to be a system in which people are held to account for what they say online. They should face the consequences; whether it is being blocked from owning an account for a period of time, or having information passed onto the police. This is why I signed the petition that done its rounds on Twitter, which has currently been signed by over 120,000 people. All of these people were sat in their chair, and took a few minutes to fill in a form. Whether these same people (myself included) would do anything proactive, I doubt.

How much use this petition is, I don't know. I believe Twitter will listen, but more because of the media attention this story has been given over the past week. I feel all I done was add my name and email address to a database, in which they can now try and collar me into signing more and more petitions.

I fear that if the report abuse button was introduced, it would just be something else for these trolls to abuse. What would stop these same people reporting users like Criado-Perez, just for a lark? Or when two young teenagers get into an argument about Justin Beiber, would they just report each other because it upset them? Probably yes. Simon Evans made the perfect comparison:

If Twitter gets a Report Abuse button it will be used with all the restraint the Simpsons used their electric shock buttons on each other.

— simon evans (@TheSimonEvans) July 30, 2013

So, this is why I'm toying with the idea of boycotting Twitter for the day on Sunday 4th of August. Why should anyone have to put up with, and ignore, abuse? Yes, you could just block them and move on with your life, but unrelenting abuse of this type is not easy to just shrug off. And besides, it's against the law. Twitter should be putting a stop to it - immediately. The fact one employee turned his profile to private when confronted about the issue, is not good enough.

I hope they step in and rescue Twitter from these idiots who have it to ransom, before we give up and all go back to Facebook. So please, don't make me go back there. I won't go. Quick; chuck it a lifebuoy from the bridge, and save it from drowning in the hands of the trolls.

People aren't fighting Twitter for a feminist agenda, like many have suggested, it's just about making it a nice place to be, and to stop abuse in all it's illegal forms.

And if you want to read the thoughts of a woman who is more eloquent and smarter than I, then read Caitlin Moran's writing about the situation here.