What Twitter users wanted was better protection against cyber-bullies and bots but, the company gave Twitter trolls a new default picture.
Twitter isn’t really known for being forward-thinking when it comes to handling their problem of trolls and cyber-bullies. It was well-documented that, thanks to Twitter trolls, cyber bullies, and bot accounts — and Twitter’s seeming refusal to properly handle the problem resulted in some potentially profitable deals from Google, SalesForce, and Disney.
Many celebrities, including 50 Shades stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda, and British presenter/comedian Stephen Fry have been driven off of Twitter thanks to the abuse by Twitter trolls. Many more celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Scarlett Johansson and Daniel Radcliffe have sworn off Twitter because of the prevalent abuse.
Leaving aside the political furor that took place on Twitter, this constant stream of abuse from trolls has clearly been a problem for Twitter. And it’s proven as their stocks continue to tumble: at the close of business this Friday, Twitter’s stock was at a measly $14.95 a share and steadily decreasing. (For purposes of comparison: at the close of business on Friday, Facebook’s stock is at $142 per share, while Snapchat’s is at about $23 per share.)
So, how did the company respond to this great disturbance in the Twitter force, these millions of voices that cried out in terror that were suddenly silenced? Did they implement a failsafe to prevent bots and trolls? Did they stop making the abuse process automated? Did they employ human beings to see who, really, was the instigator behind a Twitter attack, rather than suspend people arbitrarily?
No, of course not. They simply gave Twitter trolls a brand new default profile photo, according to The AV Club. The idea was to get rid of the egg default profile photo so that people would “remove the negative connotation” associated with Twitter trolls.
Naturally, this announcement was met with the rancor from the various media outlets whose journalists (this writer included) have dared to write something that, while factual, people simply do not like, and thus are at the receiving end of steady streams of abuse.
The AV Club put it best:
"“Considering all of the other stuff the company does to discourage “negative behavior” (which is effectively nothing), simply changing the default avatar is kind of like hanging a nice painting over the growing patch of mold on your wall. It doesn’t actually fix the issue, it just covers it up and gives you some time before people start choking to death on poisonous spores.”"
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Twitter’s response to the ever-persistent problem of Twitter trolls only proves how woefully out of touch they really are.