Twitter Tightens Security; Makes It Easier To Report Threats To Authorities

Twitter has gradually emerged as a prominent social media website, attracting users from every demographic. In light of it's sucess, and overaching traffic generation, there have been a multitude of requests from users, asking the company to bolster security measures.

It is not uncommon, for Twitter users to receive scornful tweets and abuse on a periodic basis, from people they may not even know personally. Most of these insults are dished out against people, merely for holding beliefs which transgress the attacker's own prejudices and value systems.

Keeping this in mind, CNET reports that Twitter has come up with an abuse reporting tool, to aid it's users in the battle against such hooliganism. In a blog post, by Ethan Avey, Twitter said the tool summarizes details of the supposed threat and sends that summary to the user's email address.

"Clicking the 'Email report' button will send you an email that packages the threatening Tweet and URL along with the responsible Twitter username and URL and a timestamp as well as your account information and the timestamp of your report. Our guidelines for law enforcement explain what additional information we have and how authorities can request it," it said.

But it also said that while it will suspend guilty accounts when necessary, it strongly recommended that the recipient of the threat contact local law enforcement "if you’re concerned about your physical safety." A separate report on Mashable said this means it is still up to individual users to bring these reports to the attention of police

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has previously admitted that as a company, "we suck at dealing with abuse and trolls." "I'm frankly ashamed of how poorly we've dealt with this issue during my tenure as CEO," Costolo said in an internal memo. "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."

Only time will tell whether Twitter's quality filter will serve its innate purpose, but not too many would argue with the fact that their latest privacy initiative, was a long time coming. While the older reporting process was rather drawn-out and tiresome, the new process at least contains a much shorter form and can be completed in a fraction of the time.