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Blogger Incites Outcry Over Twitter Harassment

CNet is reporting that one blogger has started an outcry about harassment as it applies to Twitter. While their written stance appears to support the safeguarding of abuse, Twitter appears to be waffling on the issue when it comes to the hard line of enforcement. "The final response to Waldman's complaint from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone asserted that "Twitter is a communication utility, not a mediator of content," and that "Twitter recognizes that it is not skilled at judging content disputes between individuals. Determining the line between update and insult is not something that Twitter, nor a crowd, would do well. Stone added that Twitter's team would continue talking about which situations were appropriate for account banning."

35 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Sock puppets? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, the other Twitter.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    1. Re:Sock puppets? by Joe+U · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm going to go out on a limb and say both Twitters have a roughly equal amount of 'suck', but one of them might actually amount to something one day. (Hint: It's not going to be the M$ one)

    2. Re:Sock puppets? by erikina · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He will, if you keep giving him so much attention. He's a troll (and a damn successful one). Stop feeding him.

    3. Re:Sock puppets? by Joe+U · · Score: 2, Insightful

      He seems like an asocial, obnoxious person who needs to be chewed out until he understands what he's doing wrong. Yeah, every popular site has one. Some of us even have em in real life. People like that are boat anchors on any site with user generated content, they slow the site down and get a lot of crap stirred up in the process.
    4. Re:Sock puppets? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > I could be wrong, of course

      No, you nailed it, pretty much. The only other thing to add here is that he is utterly and completely convinced that all his problems on Slashdot are the result of a massive conspiracy directed against him personally by Microsoft.

      The first few times I saw him make that argument I just sort of chuckled, but he is quite serious. He just knows that he is being modded down by evil agents of Microsoft intent on subverting Slashdot and his own personal freedom of speech.

      The idea that he might be incredibly obnoxious to a large percentage of his peers around here has probably never crossed his mind.

      It's almost unbelievable, but I think it's true. He does actually believe that.

    5. Re:Sock puppets? by The+Master+Control+P · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, I kept trying to figure out why the summary referred to Twitter using "their," and why CNet would care enough to write a whole story about a schizophrenic forum troll...

    6. Re:Sock puppets? by cyphercell · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hi twitter! ~ Anonymous Coward is a well known twitter sock puppet.

      --
      Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
  2. Wow by Threni · · Score: 3, Interesting

    People really take this shit seriously. Why can't they just say `we don't care. If you think you're being harassed, go to the police. We make no changes to our code, or messages sent over it, without a court order. If you don't like it - stop using our service.`.

    1. Re:Wow by hansoloaf · · Score: 4, Interesting

      me thinks the "blogger" is just trying to maintain or increase traffic to her site - thinking she's somewhat important.

      One interesting tidbit is that she works for Pownce. I do know that this harassment started before she worked for Pownce. Yet I do see that the conflict of interest is in there now if she continues to press her case. She is free to close her twitter account and utilize pownce fully.

    2. Re:Wow by me+at+werk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They'd love to, but when the community manager of Pownce (a twitter clone with a few more features) wants to sully the name of Twitter as Pownce is failing, you've gotta be a loud damsel in distress, don't you?

      --
      For context, click Parent.
  3. Important part of TOS by conlaw · · Score: 4, Informative
    As stated in TFA, Twitter's TOS includes the following:

    [Twitter] may, but have no obligation to, remove content and accounts containing content that we determine in our sole discretion are unlawful, offensive, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise objectionable or violates any party's intellectual property, or these terms of use.
    In other words, they've left themselves an out for claims such as these.
    1. Re:Important part of TOS by Mike89 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What I find funny is the complete double-standards of the internet community at large. eg. "OMG, Microsoft banned me because my gamertag seemed offensive, their ToS is stupid as!", then "OMG, Twitter won't enforce their ToS, that's stupid as!".

    2. Re:Important part of TOS by UncleTogie · · Score: 2, Insightful

      OMG, Microsoft banned me because my gamertag seemed offensive, their ToS is stupid as!", then "OMG, Twitter won't enforce their ToS, that's stupid as!".

      Ok, I'll bite... Stupid as what? ;)

      --
      Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  4. Overreaction by ady1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its a free service after all. If you don't like it then don't use it. Their TOS from TFA seem to suggest the same that they have no obligation to remove anything.

  5. Related: GetSatisfaction Thread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/twitter_refuses_to_uphold_terms_of_service

    There are many people posting in this thread, some more ardently than others. Good points are dotted here and there. Of particular note are the two replies from Twitter employees. It's interesting how neither of them pull the "we have no obligation according to the TOS" card and how neither of them make any move to discredit the complaint.

    Is silence tantamount to agreement, in this case?

  6. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone? by jayhawk88 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What, was Max Power already taken?

  7. The point is this will lead to bad press by Basho · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There will no doubt be all sorts of threads here about whether Twitter has to remove content, if people are making too big a deal about this, comparisons to Flickr/YouTube/Microsoft(of course), etc... And of course LOTS of conversations about why Twitter is always down.

    But to me the real issue here is simple: This will make people say "If that is the way Twitter treats people, I'm moving on".

    A community-building site needs its community, otherwise it is just a php script sitting on a server somewhere. Piss off a vocal part of the community and eventually the tide will turn elsewhere.

  8. The comments that show she's lying. by me+at+werk · · Score: 4, Interesting
    There's a good comment there pointing out that this is all a bit of an attention whoring scheme (where's the full disclosure that the blogger crying out works for Pownce, a twitter competitor?), right here.

    #

    I have a list of 13 tweets that Ariel sent us as examples of the abuse from the account she wanted banned. According to our records, this is everything she sent us, except for those from the âoeconfessionsâ account, which Ariel says was not the main problem. (I couldnâ(TM)t look those up, because the posts themselves were deleted before we could look at them.)

    I would *love* to post the whole file of these examples. I think it would clear a lot of things up. Unfortunately, since this content is the source of all this strife, and itâ(TM)s now off the Internet, that seemsâ¦well, not quite right.

    What I will tell you is this:

    Out of these posts, exactly one mentions Ariel by name. It calls her âoeexperienced.â The others do not personally identify Ariel.

    One of them uses the word âoecuntâ (with a quote, presumably from Ariel). None contain either âoecrackâ or âoewhore.â None contain threats, physical or otherwise. Most are insults about physical or personality attributes without referring to anyone specifically. If you were following both Ariel and the account of this woman when these posts were made, it may have been clear who she was referring to. Out of that context, you would probably have no clue. But even if they would have mentioned Ariel by name, most of them are not actionable, because we donâ(TM)t have a rule against insulting people or hurting their feelings.

    Caveat: Many of the examples she sent us were from Flickr. I didnâ(TM)t look at all of these, becauseâ¦well, we donâ(TM)t run Flickr.

    Our stance is this: We stand by our TOS. We have deleted accounts for abuse of various kinds. We had to make a judgement call here, as one does in all such cases. This didnâ(TM)t meet the bar for being banned, in our opinion.

    You can disagree with our judgment call. And thatâ(TM)s fine. But youâ(TM)re choosing to do that without seeing the content, and someone has very carefully painted a picture that has misled many people. (One might ask why Ariel didnâ(TM)t post the full tweets in order to strengthen her case.)

    Even if you do disagree with our judgment call, this is not an argument about whether or not weâ(TM)re enforcing our TOS; this is an argument about how we define âoeharassmentâ or âoeabuse.â

    THAT IS ALL.
    # Evan Williams said on May 23rd, 2008 at 6:45 pm:

    One more thing:

    @Russ: âoeâ¦a lawsuit, seems to be a concern of yours correct?â

    No, not correct. That is a total red herring that was probably constructed to make us look like a cowardly corporation (clever!).

    Not that we canâ(TM)t be sued â" sure, we can. But that has not motivated our actions here.


    Now the content of the "Ariel says" comment:

    # Ariel Waldman Says:
    May 23rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    @ericabiz youâ(TM)re right and I have worked with kosso and thanked him in the past and I very much appreciated his objective understanding of the issue.

    I chose not to mention him because the majority of the harassment I reference was created by a different account than the one he had created and I didnâ(TM)t want to drag him through this.


    All preserved so that when they try to cover it up, slashdot has a backup.
    --
    For context, click Parent.
    1. Re:The comments that show she's lying. by me+at+werk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It proves that there's no proof of any of the statements that were supposed to be heinous enough to fully remove the account. An account, I might add, anyone can post to (it was a "confessional" much like grouphug). So, easily, and I'm not saying this WAS the case, but others have postulated it's likely: she could have made the posts, reported them, and they were "caught" by the person running the confessional as being bad before the people at Twitter had the chance to look at them.

      It's like if I trolled myself as an AC...

      --
      For context, click Parent.
  9. Harassment on Twitter: by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I assume harassment on Twitter consists of pre-twittering someone's intention of going for a shit?

    Or is it being Twit-rolled

  10. Self absorbed gobshites 2.0 by Cathoderoytube · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When you're dealing with the level of stupid that feels the need to post updates of whatever mundane crap they're doing at every moment of the day you're going to have to expect to attract a large number of other stupids. I'll say that MAYBE twitter really isn't an integral part of the internet, or blogosphere or whatever so much as it is an exercise in self absorbed gobshittery. I guess that's what 'web 2.0' is supposed to be though.

    Considering the individual in this case is a 'popular blogger' she should expect some bloody hate mail. I'm sure she gets plenty of lovey dovey crap from her followers as well, and they're all doing their very best to send her emails with smiley faces so she'll feel all good about having a blog and a twitter account.

    I for one welcome hatred! That's why I'm not posting this anonymously :)

    --
    I have nothing compelling to say
    1. Re:Self absorbed gobshites 2.0 by hyades1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I understand they're planning a somewhat less "me-centric" version of Twitter for people who still have room in their heads for at least one thought per day that isn't strictly related to themselves.

      I believe they're going to call it "Wanker".

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    2. Re:Self absorbed gobshites 2.0 by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 3, Funny

      Who pissed in your corn flakes?

      Why do you care so much if other people use a web service, update their friends/family/strangers with important or unimportant facts, and generally have a presence on the web? Does it REALLY affect you so much that you have to rant about it online? Do you have to resort to personal attacks on someone whom you've never met, never read, and don't care about?

      I'll never understand the hate some people have about other people using the internet.

    3. Re:Self absorbed gobshites 2.0 by UncleTogie · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Do you have to resort to personal attacks on someone whom you've never met, never read, and don't care about?

      I have a question here....

      If they've never met them, never read their work/read about them, and don't care about them....

      ...how is it "personal"? Jus' asking...

      --
      Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  11. The problem is... by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 5, Insightful

    She's pissed that someone called her a crack-whore looking cunt.

    Here's how I see it: She looks like a crack whore, and all this bitching about being called a name makes her a cunt. Meaning: She's a crack whore looking cunt.

    She's an 'internet celebrity' (I guess) and decided to use her real information in her accounts. Next, she made her Flickr account known to all, and also posted skanky pictures in it. And when someone called her out on it, she cried.

    She could easily stop using it, since it's just ego masturbation anyway. "Look at all the people who care that I'm brushing my teeth!"

    --
    Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
  12. Re:who gives a shit? by erikina · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've heard of not reading the article, but perhaps you should read the summary. Hint: They're talking about the micro-blogging service.

  13. ahm i know her problem by FudRucker · · Score: 2, Funny

    she is just twitterpated...

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  14. Inciting outrage? by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 4, Funny

    One blogger whining about 'harassment' gets a few supporting comments on her post, and she's 'inciting outrage'?

    Must be a web 2.0 thing.

  15. Re:who gives a shit? by Basho · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hm, I don't get your point, really. Twitter is a micro-blogging site, got that. But people post micro-blog postings ( Tweets ) with the intention that someone else will be following those micro-blog posts. That's why I called it a community: people connected to other people.

    So if a vocal subset of those people stand by their friends and leave Twitter for WHATEVER reason, the network starts to fall apart - once more people I'm interested in connecting with move elsewhere Twitter will be less interesting to me, and I'm more likely to move, dragging my legion of 29 followers with me...

  16. wtf? by acvh · · Score: 2, Insightful

    she's a "social-media insights consultant" here's an insight, free of charge: get a real life.
  17. Re:Nothing massive here. by causality · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I know because I have been playing the dreadfully easy, multiple account game.

    It's about time you 'fessed up to that.

    The bottom line is that you are worse than ineffective, you are counter productive. You are on the losing side the free software battle and making things worse for yourself. Insult and disruption are empty.

    I have used Linux for nearly eleven years. Not once have I felt that there is a "battle" between Microsoft and Free Software. I agree that Microsoft makes shitty products; that's why I don't use them. It's such a simple thing: I don't like their products and I don't like their business practices so I contribute to neither. If someone does like their products and does use them, I will tell them that I think there are better alternatives if they are interested. If they are not, I wish them well and I celebrate their right (and obligation) to make their own choices and live with the consequences. If this results in their having a worse computing experience than me, it is unfortunate but it is also not my problem.

    A big reason why I have so thoroughly enjoyed Linux is because I am not afraid of learning something new. I am always glad to expand my knowledge, especially when something interests me, because I greatly prefer this over ignorance. To me, there are many wonderous things in the world and there is an element of adventure in overcoming something I did not previously understand. So, when I encountered Linux in mid-1997, I read books, man pages, Internet forums, HOWTOs, and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. It absolutely fascinated me, both the elegant design of the system and the philosophy of freedom that was behind it. At the time I kept a Windows 98 partition to play a couple of Windows games; when I noticed that a year went by without me once booting up Windows, I formatted it with an ext2 filesystem and never looked back. I love the design, reliability, and feeling of control that Linux gives me. It does not get in my way. It does not assume that I'm an idiot. If something breaks, it broke for a good reason, it will stay broken until I fix it and when I fix it, it will stay fixed. Linux is easily one of the best things that ever could have happened to my computing experience and my general interest in technology.

    However, I do not believe that the average person is going to appreciate these attributes. There is unfortunately a strong anti-intellectual, anti-learning culture, at least in the USA. There exists the idea that the path of least resistance is the secret to a good and happy life, and by extension there is the idea that learning something new is painful and too much work and should be avoided whenever possible. The fact that I believe this to be a lie is not relevant, no matter how much I wish it were. The average person is not going to enjoy the design of Linux or the love of freedom that is behind it. What I am talking about has very little to do with computing, despite the specific application about which I am speaking, but is a general attitude towards life. However much I may disagree with what I consider to be a dehumanizing form of laziness, I must respect that people need to live their own lives the way they see fit. A corporation like Microsoft that promises "it will just work with little to no effort -- now easier to use than EVER!" is always going to appeal to this culture. People who do not wish to expand their knowledge and enjoy the tools they use every day are going to buy into it. To them, it is "the way things are"; to me, they are making their choice and living with the consequences.

    If you really think that what you are doing is battling a corporation because you dislike their products and their business practices, it is because you fail to consider and understand the foundation upon which it is built. Microsoft is not the cause of much of anything. In a manner of speaking, the things

    --
    It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  18. Re:Nothing massive here. by ScentCone · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It would not surprise me to learn that you work for M$ or some kind of PR firm under their hire

    That's because it would really make you feel better if you could honestly discover that to be true. You want it to be true, because you're so invested in that fantasy that if you ever admit to yourself that it's a delusion, the psychic pain it will cause will really hurt you. Deep down, you rationally know that, but because you're afraid of the pain that will come with the shame of admitting you've been weaving a paranoid fantasy all this time, you just build up that house-of-cards narrative all the higher. Every comment you read about your own disconnected world view is just another card you're adding to the stack, because you find the habit of defending that broken world view to be - despite being actually badly damaged and damaging - just a case of inertia. You're so latched onto your fiction that your only constructive activity, now, is to add to it... and just make matters worse.

    but it does not matter. No one here cares or listens, except to reflect, "Yeah, that's what M$ does to people who bad mouth them."

    Except, that's not true, and you know it's not true. That's actually a lie. And you know it. And yet you repeat it, over and over again. I know you won't be able to actually address it such, and that's OK. You do, internally, know it. The only thing that's a shame is that someone who doesn't know better may actually have their reasoned understanding of a given situation on which you comment temporarily delayed, as they spend a little time dissecting your ramblings, and comparing them to reality. You've already decided to waste your life pretending that reality is different than it actually is. It's just unfortunate that your willingness to spend so much time at it - in a vain attempt to make it appear that you're sincere and being honest about it - may drag some other person, however briefly, into your unhappy relationship with reality. Ah, well.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  19. Re:Nothing massive here. by Kalriath · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are on the losing side the free software battle and making things worse for yourself. Battle? What battle? You know, I've never even seen the Free Software Foundation try to claim there's some kind of battle. Yet you (and folks like PJ at Groklaw) seem to believe that Freedom of Choice in software is good, so long as it's the same as your choice.

    And before you trot out the "M$ Shill" line, no I don't get paid by Microsoft. I work for the government in my country, and we're encouraged to consider Open Source in our "purchasing" decisions, and in fact we even use it - our IT department even encourages Firefox usage (because, well, IE is bloody difficult to use!) and our government has even proposed RFCs and contributes to Open Source itself.
    --
    For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
  20. Re:Nothing massive here. by ResidntGeek · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have been playing the dreadfully easy, multiple account game.
    Incorrect. What you've been doing is demonstrating aptly how dreadfully easy the multiple account game isn't. You've had something like 10 sockpuppets which you've used in the clumsiest of fashions and which have been quickly called out as such. You've shown no ability at all to conceal your intentions, change your writing style, post with different temporal patterns with different accounts, post in separate threads with different accounts, or otherwise in any way avoid notice. You've even had several conversations (that I've seen) with yourself, containing blatant self-promotion despite the fact that several people were actively pointing out that you were conversing with yourself.

    You, of all people, should realize how absurd it would be to think all these people responding negatively to your stupidities are the same person.
    --
    ResidntGeek
  21. Re:Nothing massive here. by Stanistani · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Twitter:

    You lost me at M$.

    That's how angsty thirteen-year-olds label Microsoft.

    Just as anti-open source folks call it 'open sores' or label its propenents as filthy, stinking hippies.

    You're a pimple on the face of free speech.

    Meanwhile, to the other folks... do we need to drag this troll into every discussion of the microblogging software of the same name?