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For Twitter, 'sorry' seems to be the easiest word
Two weeks before Cesar Sayoc was arrested for mailing 13 pipe bombs (and counting) to various Democratic politicians and supporters, including President Barack Obama, he was threatening people on Twitter who opposed his nationalist, pro-Trump views. In a tweet to political analyst Rochelle Ritchie on October 11th, which he sent from one of two Twitter accounts that have since been suspended, he said she should hug her "loved ones real close every time" she left home. "So you like [to] make threats. We Unconquered Seminole Tribe will answer your threats. We have nice silent Air boat ride for you here on our land Everglades Swamp. We will see u 4 sure," he added. Ritchie reported the tweet, only to be told by Twitter that it did not violate its terms of service.
Unpaid and abused: Moderators speak out against Reddit
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. It discusses topics that you may find upsetting and contains strong language and racial slurs. Somewhere out there, a man wants to rape Emily. She knows this because he was painfully clear in typing out his threat. In fact, he's just one of a group of people who wish her harm. For the past four years, Emily has volunteered to moderate the content on several sizable subreddits -- large online discussion forums -- including r/news, with 16.3 million subscribers, and r/london, with 114,000 subscribers. But Reddit users don't like to be moderated.
Twitter says its safety updates are stamping out abuse
It's safe to say Twitter had an awful 2016. Yet amidst all its turmoil, its abuse problem trumped all others. To make matters worse, the company's convoluted approach to cleaning up its site left even its most ardent users bemused. Then, at the onset of this year, Twitter promised a more proactive stance. A slew of updates followed, including a bunch of muting and filtering tools. Now, at the halfway stage of 2017, it claims the changes are working.
Recommended Reading: How Russia hacked the US
The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the US Eric Lipton, David E. Sanger and Scott Shane, The New York Times Within the last week, the CIA, Obama administration and FBI have all agreed that Russian intervened in the presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump. The White House went so far as to say that the cyberattacks were directed by president Vladimir Putin himself. The New York Times offers a detailed look at the Russian hack of the DNC which led to emails and other documents making it into the hands of WikiLeaks and other websites.
Hackers target Leslie Jones, post nude photos to her site
Leslie Jones, the Ghostbusters and SNL star who has been the target of vicious online harassment this summer, has fallen victim to a hack that compromised her personal photos and info. According to Variety, Jones' website was hacked and nude photos from her iCloud account were published to its front page. Images of her passport and driver's license have also been shared. Jones has yet to offer an official comment on the situation (either on Twitter or anywhere else) but her personal website is currently down entirely.
Yahoo researchers built a powerful new online abuse detector
A team of researchers at Yahoo Labs have plumbed the depths of their company's massive comment sections to come up with something that might actually be useful for detecting and eventually curbing rampant online abuse. Using a first-of-its-kind data set built from offensive article comments flagged by Yahoo editors, the research team was able to develop an algorithm that, according Technology Review, is the best automated abuse filter built to date.
