Caroline Criado-Perez, a 29-year old freelance journalist, was bombarded with rape and death threats just hours after triumphantly campaigning to have Jane Austen featured in a new British banknote.
Most of the threats were received through Twitter every minute. Some says “no means yes” and “kill yourself before I do,” and those were created by “men who want women to shut up.”
While online bullying and abuse is not new, the threats against Criado-Perez have appeared to be the utmost profile of its kind, with the mere quantity and vivid nature of the note surprising the usually calmed British public.
The hullabaloo is the most recent in Britain’s perturbed relationship with Twitter, a site that has become a media for democracy in a lot of countries but that has come under heavy fire here from government officials, sports stars and celebrities, among others.
Following the reported abuse filed by Criado-Perez and Stella Creasy, a Labor Party member of Parliament, two were arrested on suspicion of harassment. Twitter bosses, who are predicted to be summoned in front of a British parliamentary committee in the fall to talk about online abuse, Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter UK, wrote a conciliatory note Saturday, tweeting an apology to women who have been subjected to threats on Twitter.
He said, “The abuse they’ve received is simply not acceptable. It’s not acceptable in the real world, and it's not acceptable on Twitter.”
Actions about the abuse have become the main topic of arguments after a number of prominent women publicly whined about harassment.
“Completely impractical for someone drowning under a wave of threats” is how Criado-Perez described the current system reporting abuse on Twitter.
About 125,000 signatures were gathered in response to Criado-Perez’ petition on Change.org calling Twitter to add a “report abuse” button.
On Saturday, Twitter noted that it is working to install such a button on all of its platforms and that the changes will apply worldwide.
