Is online aggression proving to be a growing problem?

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Recently a number of cases have emerged where social activists have found themselves facing a torrent of abuse on social media.

In the UK, Caroline Criado-Perez recently led the campaign to redress the gender imbalance on Britain’s currency by having a woman installed on the ten pound note.  As a result of her campaign, she was inundated with threats of violence on Twitter, including threats of rape.

Here in Australia, activist Talitha Stone was also a victim of abuse and threats on Twitter after speaking out against rapper Tyler Okonma, whose lyrics encourage violence against women.

Talitha didn’t feel his lyrics were appropriate for an all-ages audience, but when she expressed this online, she was inundated by abuse and violent threats from the rapper’s fans.  Talitha says that reporting the abuse to Twitter was a time-consuming and complicated process, which led nowhere.

Do social media websites need to take more responsibility for their user’s online safety and should they be removing comments which are of a violent, threatening or explicit nautre – comments that in any other context would be considered to be harrassment.

Audio – Talitha Stone talked to Hope Mornings about her campaign to get Twitter to install a ‘Report Abuse’ button.

http://downloads.hopemedia.com.au/ed/ed_20130731talithastone.mp3

More Information

Visit Melinda Tankard Reist’s blog to sign the petition asking Twitter to add a report abuse button.