Twitter CEO Memo: We Suck At Dealing With Trolls

[Fanghawk]

Twitter CEO Memo: We Suck At Dealing With Trolls

In a leaked internal memo, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo admits he's "ashamed of how poorly" the company deals with trolling and online abuse.

<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/twitter>Twitter is one of the more unique forms of social media today, and not simply for its 140 character post count. Its open format allows anyone in the world to instantly follow and interact with anyone else, creating unique communications between content creators, pop culture figures, and fans. The downside is that's it's <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136844-Robin-Williams-Daughter-Leaves-Twitter-Maybe-Forever-Following-Online-Abuse>incredibly easy for trolls to break the system, dishing out abuse and harassment on an unprecedented scale. It's an issue everyone knows about, and Twitter is no exception - Twitter CEO Dick Costolo acknowledged the company's poor record in a leaked internal memo, and took personal responsibility for the problem.

"We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we've sucked at it for years," Costolo wrote on Twitter's internal forum. "It's no secret and the rest of the world talks about it every day. We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day. I'm frankly ashamed of how poorly we've dealt with this issue during my tenure as CEO. It's absurd. There's no excuse for it. I take full responsibility for not being more aggressive on this front. It's nobody else's fault but mine, and it's embarrassing.

"We're going to start kicking these people off right and left and making sure that when they issue their ridiculous attacks, nobody hears them."

The memo was provided in response to employee questions about Lindy West, who <a href=http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/02/what-happened-confronted-cruellest-troll-lindy-west>wrote very publicly about the online abuse she faced personally. Twitter has attempted to address online abuse issues in the past - the company attempted to improve its reporting tools in Dec. 2014 and partnered with advocacy group WAM! to investigate harassment against women. But at best, this is an uphill battle for Twitter, and if Costolo's follow-up note is to be believed he feels personally responsible:

Let me be very very clear about my response here. I take PERSONAL responsibility for our failure to deal with this as a company. I thought i did that in my note, so let me reiterate what I said, which is that I take personal responsibility for this. I specifically said "It's nobody's fault but mine"

We HAVE to be able to tell each other the truth, and the truth that everybody in the world knows is that we have not effectively dealt with this problem even remotely to the degree we should have by now, and that's on me and nobody else. So now we're going to fix it, and I'm going to take full responsibility for making sure that the people working night and day on this have the resources they need to address the issue, that there are clear lines of responsibility and accountability, and that we don't equivocate in our decisions and choices.

Twitter has declined comment on the memo, but with a fourth quarter earnings call scheduled for this afternoon, trolls and online abuse will almost certainly be on the agenda now.

Source: <a href=http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/4/7982099/twitter-ceo-sent-memo-taking-personal-responsibility-for-the>The Verge, via <a href=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/05/twitter-ceo-we-suck-dealing-with-trolls-abuse>The Guardian

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[Hiramas]

Maybe, as a first step, don't make me jump through 20 hoops when I try to report a troll on twitter?
I know the report system can be abused, but making it inaccessible by requiring so many details about the reported tweet is just turning people away from reporting.

 

[StatusNil]

Well, duh. That's what Twitter is good for. That, and advertising.

As for WAM, they were fairly pathetic from what I've observed. Nowhere nearly as good as the GamerGate Harassment Patrol in weeding out harassment, great at being politically weaponized though.

The sooner people realize the flaw is a feature of the model, the better.

 

[WarpedMind]

If he was that ashamed of it then you'd think he'd do something about it.

There's been a hundred solutions proposed for this problem, by far the easiest of which would be allowing people to automatically block accounts by account age.

90% of all twitter harassment and nearly 100% of all serious harassment (Death threats and the like) is done using 0-day burner accounts.

Just give people the ability to automatically block any account that isn't say, a week old. No one is gonna wait an entire week just to troll someone.

It's the easiest solution in the world, it doesn't result in an easier to exploit report system (the current system is already really easy to abuse).

No one loses.

 

[The_Darkness]

So it turns out that using 140 characters for a discussion is harder than just using it for slinging insults around. Who knew?

I have to admit, though, that this is a major reason why I steer clear of Twitter, so I'm glad to see them at least recognising the problem.

 

[webkilla]

Will they also deal with abuse of the automated report system?

 

[flying_whimsy]

This alongside their reported shortage in growth for the last quarter is really amusing to me. "Hey, our service is an uncontrolled breeding ground of harassment; also it's iOS 8's fault that we lost 4 million users."

It's like they are just starting to wake up to the fact that they enable some of the worst bullying and trolling on the entire internet.

 

[VanQ]

I'd probably worry less about trolling and more about terrorist organizations like ISIS and Al'Qaida (however you spell that) using your platform to spread propaganda and recruit jihadists.

 

[waj9876]

If he was that ashamed of it then you'd think he'd do something about it.

There's been a hundred solutions proposed for this problem, by far the easiest of which would be allowing people to automatically block accounts by account age.

90% of all twitter harassment and nearly 100% of all serious harassment (Death threats and the like) is done using 0-day burner accounts.

Just give people the ability to automatically block any account that isn't say, a week old. No one is gonna wait an entire week just to troll someone.

It's the easiest solution in the world, it doesn't result in an easier to exploit report system (the current system is already really easy to abuse).

No one loses.

Then they'd just make a bunch of burner accounts in preparation of trolling someone, or sending them death threats, or any number of things.

You seem to be severely underestimating the lengths some people will go to piss other people off. This won't stop the trolls, it'll only make them angry. And an angry troll is much, much worse than someone doing it just because they can.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I'd probably worry less about trolling and more about terrorist organizations like ISIS and Al'Qaeda (however you spell that) using your platform to spread propaganda and recruit jihadists.

There

OP: Another option: get rid of twitter altogether?

I've yet to see it's incredibly lazy method of communication doing anything good instead of grossly misinforming people across the board >_>

*retreats to Hermit Cave*

 

[WarpedMind]

Snip

Then they'd just make a bunch of burner accounts in preparation of trolling someone, or sending them death threats, or any number of things.

You seem to be severely underestimating the lengths some people will go to piss other people off. This won't stop the trolls, it'll only make them angry. And an angry troll is much, much worse than someone doing it just because they can.

And you seem to be vastly overestimating the amount of effort people are willing to put into actions which are almost uniformly spur-of-the-moment emotional gut reactions to shit they don't like.

You're talking as if the method I proposed hasn't been tried, it has, plenty of places, in particular some very popular subreddits, have implemented this system, and it has taken shitposting and trolling from being prevalent to being nearly non-existent.

Trolls are not mustache-twirling James Bond villians who spend all their time scheming at how to bring down the people they disagree with. They're just bored douchebags with too much time on their hands. They're looking for instant gratification, and a block on burner accounts takes that away.

Am I saying that this will stop all trolling? Obviously not, but it will very drastically reduce it and given the current state of Twitter I think that's very much a good start.

Though frankly I think that much larger changes in attitude are needed to make Twitter an actual decent place again, people need to stop using it for conversation and discussion entirely. Discussions over Twitter always devolve to a level below that of Youtube comments for the very simple reason that cramming a proper argument into 140 characters simply isn't possible. Some people really seem completely unaware of the limitations of the format.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Gee, it's almost as if creating a system where anyone can say anything to anyone else without a filter or any way to be punished for it whatsoever was a dumb idea!

Though if whatever he's planning on doing about it actually works, I'll be interested in seeing how YouTube responds to the inevitable flood of "your turn"s.

 

[dragoon3zero]

i have Open Tweet Filter, it hides tweets that have certain words or phrases and specific people if you know their username

 

[Smooth Operator]

Whole lot of huff and puff followed by a terrible resolution, kicking people off... dude they have no attachment to their accounts, the moment you do that they will be back with a new one.
Provide people with the proper filters and they can handle it themselves, trolls will simply not be heard that way instead of chasing them long after their shit has hit the fan.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

If he was that ashamed of it then you'd think he'd do something about it.

There's been a hundred solutions proposed for this problem, by far the easiest of which would be allowing people to automatically block accounts by account age.

90% of all twitter harassment and nearly 100% of all serious harassment (Death threats and the like) is done using 0-day burner accounts.

Just give people the ability to automatically block any account that isn't say, a week old. No one is gonna wait an entire week just to troll someone.

It's the easiest solution in the world, it doesn't result in an easier to exploit report system (the current system is already really easy to abuse).

No one loses.

Can't think of a problem with this so far but who knows.

 

[JediMB]

As for WAM, they were fairly pathetic from what I've observed. Nowhere nearly as good as the GamerGate Harassment Patrol in weeding out harassment

The GG Harassment Patrol was really good at finding scapegoats with one hand whilst themselves harassing people or encouraging harassment with the other.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

This guy sounds like he has some kind of marytrdom complex. He should work out those issues before tackling the company's

 

[Nimcha]

Gee, it's almost as if creating a system where anyone can say anything to anyone else without a filter or any way to be punished for it whatsoever was a dumb idea!

I was thinking exactly the same thing. It's astonishing people still don't realize that large groups of people interacting will always lead to either conflict or harassment.

 

[shirkbot]

So many people with interesting ideas today. Kudos to the following:

Just give people the ability to automatically block any account that isn't say, a week old. No one is gonna wait an entire week just to troll someone.

That idea sounds lovely, and not just for Twitter, especially since it doesn't actually remove anyone from the system. It fits nicely with the "Don't Like, Don't Watch/Read" mentality. Well said.

OP: Another option: get rid of twitter altogether?

I've yet to see it's incredibly lazy method of communication doing anything good instead of grossly misinforming people across the board >_>

*retreats to Hermit Cave*

I think you might have the right idea, but it's still useful for just letting people know things quickly like "Hey, [interesting event] at [location]!" or the like. Some people even use it as such, though I won't claim to know even roughly how many.

Gee, it's almost as if creating a system where anyone can say anything to anyone else without a filter or any way to be punished for it whatsoever was a dumb idea!

I was thinking exactly the same thing. It's astonishing people still don't realize that large groups of people interacting will always lead to either conflict or harassment.

Only without proper mediation. We can get a lot done with little actual conflict if we can just make sure that someone is around to keep people from getting too rowdy/obnoxious. The problem is that Twitter, like Google, doesn't want to do the moderation required to facilitate civility.

 

[Strazdas]

source: The Guardian

so the memo is fake then?

Also Twitter was pretty much DESIGNED FOR harassment. with the lack of features to control people posting and character limit its pretty much designed for little more than that.

and partnering with known political weapons or hate groups is not going to solve harassment. you know what would help? if your moderators actually bothered to do their job. but i guess thats too much to ask and we have to rely on bot replies to questions.