According to a poll conducted by Amnesty International, the social media giantTwitter is inactive while considering reports of violence and abuse against women in its platform. The results of the poll, about abuse against women journalists and politicians from the United Kingdom and the United States on Twitter in 2017, was released on Wednesday, reported the Scroll.
The poll showed that one “abusive or problematic message” was sent to a woman every 30 seconds. More than 6,500 volunteers from 150 countries participated in Amnesty’s “Troll Patrol”, a crowdsourcing project aimed at compiling online abuse-related data. The study found that black women were 84% more likely to be targeted with abusive tweets than white women.
Amnesty’s United Kingdom Director Kate Allen said the results of the poll corroborate women’s claims about Twitter being “endemic with racism, misogyny, and homophobia”.
“The online space is an important platform for political and public conversation, and women must feel safe to express themselves and engage in debate without fear of abuse,” Allen said. “Twitter is failing to be transparent about the extent of the problem. The company must take concrete steps to properly protect women’s rights on the platform.”The international organization said that Twitter has asked them for a clarification on the definition of “problematic” in accordance with “the need to protect free expression and ensure policies are clearly and narrowly drafted”.
Twitter remains indifferent to reports of violence against women
