Reporting Harassment on Twitter Just Got a Lot Easier
LatestJust about a month after WAM (Women, Action & the Media) teamed up with Twitter to create a new and improved system of reporting harassment with a focus on gendered harassment, Twitter has introduced their newest feature: a streamlined and easier way to report a harasser on the site.
Users can now block and file a report, identify the type of problem, choose from a list of issues (Impersonation, Private information, Harassment, Self-harm or Suicide), and report the degree of harassment (from general offensiveness to threats of violence or physical harm). Users can also specify who is being affected, so you can report on other users’ behalf.
Twitter has also added a Blocked Accounts page in Settings which shows the accounts you have blocked. According to the site, the updates are currently available for a small group of users, but they intend to offer the updates to everyone “in the coming weeks,” announcing:
We are nowhere near being done making changes in this area. In the coming months, you can expect to see additional user controls, further improvements to reporting and new enforcement procedures for abusive accounts.
While it might not be as fun as reporting your harassers to their mothers, this is a very exciting and much needed feature from the site. It will be interesting to see how quickly action is taken after Tweets are reported and what the enforcement procedures will look like in practice.
Image via Getty.