Twitter CEO Admits Failing to Eradicate Abuse on Twitter

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo admitted that Twitter has a lasting problem with harassment and abuse, telling employees that he is embarrassed for the company's failures and would soon be taking stronger action to eradicate trolls.

He wrote in an internal memo that problems with abuse are driving away the company's users. "We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we've sucked at it for years. 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," reported The Verge.

Amid prevalent criticism, Twitter released some tools to improve its laborious process for reporting abuse in December. In November, Twitter together with an advocacy group tried investigating harassment against women.

But every day, Twitter users still face threats of physical violence, sexual abuse, and stalking — all forms of harassment that excessively affect women online, according to data from The Pew Center.

Feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian collected the harassment she received on Twitter from January 20th to the 26th. Sarkessian received threats from Gamergate predators because of her criticism of the way women are portrayed in video games. She received tweets containing gendered insults, victim blaming, incitement to suicide, sexual violence, rape and death threats, reports The Verge.

Twitter's fourth quarter earnings report is due tomorrow. It is expected that their new tie-up with Google, which was revealed today will be further discussed at the meeting. Google and Twitter have worked out a business deal that gives Google full access to Twitter's huge amount of tweets.

But given Costolo's acknowledgement that abuse on Twitter is costing them users, it is expected he will receive questions about his plans for dealing with abuse and trolls.