Digital Smarts - Twitter Takes Action on Online Abuse

Twitter recently addressed longtime complaints by banning certain users and making its exclusive "verified status" option to be more openly available. Verified accounts include those maintained by public figures and organizations in music, TV, film, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas. The accounts have a blue checkmark next to the user's name to show the user or organization has been vetted by Twitter and the user's phone number and email address are legitimate.

This action was a direct result of the abuse that "Ghostbusters" actress Leslie Jones received from Milo Yiannopoulos, a tech editor at Breitbart.com who has been suspended in the past for violating Twitter's code of conduct. Yiannopoulos incited his followers to bombard Jones with tweets criticizing the "Ghostbusters" new release that features all-female leads. Digital rights activists and victims of online abuse have long called for more proactive solutions that would give users means to address harassment more quickly without waiting for a response from the site's complaint department, or to ban repeat offenders who switch accounts.