Twitter cracks down on abusive tweets

In the end, Del Harvey says the decision to help users report threats of rape and other violence on Twitter was simple.

"It comes down to this," wrote Harvey, senior director of Twitter's Trust and Safety division, "people deserve to feel safe on Twitter."

The site announced a list of changes this weekend in response to complaints that it wasn't doing enough to combat hate speech, particularly against women.

The site is adding staff to handle abuse reports, partnering with an organization that focuses on the safe use of technology by children and updating its rules to clarify that abusive behavior is not allowed.

"We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter Rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such (behavior) was, or could ever be, acceptable," wrote Harvey and Twitter UK general manager Tony Chang in a blog post.

The post also reiterated that a "report abuse" button on individual tweets was added recently on some mobile versions of Twitter and said it will be available on the others, as well as the Web, in the coming month. Currently, users who want to flag threatening messages on Twitter must visit the service's online help center, which requires several extra steps.

:story: CNN