Why doesn’t Twitter think these rape and death threats are harassment? (Salon)

[inanna]

Twitter's policies explicitly ban violent harassment. But it ignores vile rape and death threats. What gives?

Remember the huge dust-up a few weeks back when certain corners of the Internet lost their damn minds because feminists were working with Twitter to address harassment? Remember how that was supposed to signal the beginning of some new feminist nightmare hellscape where, I don’t know, people actually listen and care when women receive rape and death threats? Remember how it was supposed to be the dawn of an era of feminist tyranny where feminists get to control everything and men can only feel sadness and eat dirt for the rest of their lives?

Turns out those guys might have overstated their case a bit. Turns out that Twitter is still a rotten place to be a woman.

Lindy West, writing at the Daily Dot, has a really powerful, really horrifying piece about the rape and death threats she’s received and reported only to be told by Twitter that they aren’t harassment.

<snip>

In another example pointed out by West, Chuck C. Johnson threatened to doxx a woman, then doxxed a woman. He was reported many times over. I’ll give you one guess as to whether or not he still has a Twitter account. (Did you guess that he does? You guessed right.) This kind of dangerous and vile bullshit isn’t unique. Women, particularly women of color and LGBTQ women, regularly receive this kind of harassment.

Link: http://www.salon.com/2014/12/23/why_doesnt_twitter_think_these_rape_and_death_threats_are_harassment/

Warning: I chose NOT to include some of the very distressing comments directed at women by these creeps. But there's examples at link.

[geek tragedy]

1. Free speech absolutism is a form of reinforcing male and white privilege.

You don't see crosses burned on white people's lawns, nor do men get rape threats.

Which is why white men tend to be a bit myopic in their belief that free speech absolutism is the best policy.

[Odin2005]

3. As a Marxist that is what I also believe.

I don't believe in "free speech" for those who use violent, oppressive language against other people.

[chervilant]

2. I have gotten death threats on this forum.

The response by Admins was swift and reassuring.

I wish I could say the same about sexism and misogyny, which frequently gets a pass here, or is turned around--much like one of the first responders at the link--and used to assert that "radical feminists" want to "control" the discourse:

The problem people have with the feminist infiltration of Facebook and Twitter is that radical feminists define disagreement of any kind as harassment and hate speech. They even define the discussion of men's rights as hate speech if it doesn't occur in a women's studies classroom.

Is "feminist infiltration" code for misogyny? I have to wonder why these pathetic individuals feel so threatened...

[Doctor_J]

4. sounds like you think death threats and "sexism" are comparable

and should be dealt with identically. A counterproductive attitude imo

[chervilant]

5. Work on your reading comprehension, j.

The point of my post herein above is the response of the Admins, not a conflation of death threats and sexism.