Twitter CEO Blames Himself for Escalating Problem of Trolls and Abuse on the Platform - The UpStream

Twitter CEO Blames Himself for Escalating Problem of Trolls and Abuse on the Platform

posted Sunday Feb 8, 2015 by Nicholas DiMeo

Twitter CEO Blames Himself for Escalating Problem of Trolls and Abuse on the Platform

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo finally admitted this week that Twitter sucks. Granted, he was specific about where exactly the sucking was occurring, but it still makes me feel good to begin an article with that sentence.

Being completely accountable for his platform staff's inaction when it comes to trolls and abusive tweets, Costolo said that, "it's nobody's fault but mine." He added that there will be change soon and that the nonsensical accounts, and sexual and racist posts, are causing people and businesses to steer away from Twitter. All of this was posted on an internal forum, where he addressed these concerns.

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.

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.

Costolo then posted another memo, which stated that Twitter needs to stop dragging its feet when it comes to dealing with these issues. He said that he takes personal responsibility for the company failing at it, then essentially repeated what he said in the message before.

While it's better late than never, the recent wave of attacks have been more extreme and more personal than ever, especially during incidents like GamerGate and almost anything involving women. It'll be interesting to see what Costolo's next move is and exactly how he plans on handling the problem.

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