Twitter is planning to expand the ‘report abuse button’ in the wake of recent furore over online threats to rape and kill a UK activist Caroline Criado-Perez. The Internet company says it will be soon rolling out the button to its Android app as well as desktop web users. Currently, the report abuse feature is only available for iPhone users and those using Twitter’s mobile site.
Twitter’s decision to expand the button is said to be partially influenced by a recent petition campaign run on Change.org where about 65,000 signatures of members were registered seeking a universal “report abuse” button.
Twitter in a blog post titled “We hear you” says: “While manually reviewing every Tweet is not possible due to Twitter’s global reach and level of activity, we use both automated and manual systems to evaluate reports of users potentially violating our Twitter Rules. These rules explicitly bar direct, specific threats of violence against others and use of our service for unlawful purposes, for which users may be suspended when reported.”
“To the extent that our system is based around the filing of reports with our Trust & Safety team, we strive to make it easier and more practical to file them. Three weeks ago, we rolled out the ability to file reports from an individual Tweet on our iPhone app and the mobile version of our site, and we plan to bring this functionality to Android and desktop web users.”