Jane Austen on the new ten pound note, that’s where I came in. To summarise: following an announcement that Winston Churchill would replace Elizabeth Fry on the five-pound note, journalist Caroline Criado-Perez campaigned to have the Pride and Prejudice author’s portrait on a bank note, and following 35,000 signatures, meetings with the Bank of England and a committed campaign it was confirmed last week that from 2017 Jane Austen will indeed grace the new ten-pound note.
Good news, admirable citizenry, and productive activism which was not specifically about Jane Austen but rather the ‘microcosm of female representation’. Over the last few days though, the story of this well-intentioned campaign was hijacked by some odious internet trolls – specifically Twitter users who, it would seem overwhelmed with self-loathing, stupidity and brimming with pathetic vitriol, issued rape and death threats to Caroline Criado-Perez and a supporter, Labour MP Stella Creasy.
RT @rapey1: @stellacreasy IF I MEET YOU IN AN ALLEY YOU WILL DEFINITELY GET FUCKED< @MPSWForest please note I’m getting these
— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) July 28, 2013
Under-resourced police forces need training and expertise to ‘skill-up’ for online crime but they already have the legislation needed to respond but why did it take a tech leader like Twitter so long to respond though and act on the complaints made by Caroline Criado-Perez and Stella Creasy? With hundreds of millions of users Twitter has become a source of news, entertainment and my favourite social-network. It works brilliantly. The CEO Dick Costolo is the internet boss the technology industry admires most for both his strategy and philosophy, their general counsel, Alex Macgillivray is the only lawyer I know who makes me feel good about corporate policy, and Twitter are the only internet giant to come out of the NSA Prism story with an aura of integrity. CEO Costolo said in an interview with Deborah Kan of the Wall Street Journal this week that the ‘conversation is the canvas’ – a phrase that resonates given the events of the last week. Caroline Criado-Perez’s campaign has become a canvas, but what we’ve seen drawn is a stark portrait of 21st century misogyny. What about social media, technology and access to communications empowering us, nation speaking unto nation, and us all being equal? Costolo also recently remarked that Twitter was the ‘soundtrack to television’ and it is uniquely placed in the media as a sort of intersection of comment and culture.
Let’s start feeding the trolls. Let’s start shouting back, and show them that we’re not going away, that we won’t be defeated. Let’s take them on. And let’s win. CAROLINE CRIADO-PEREZ- New Statesman
For a while I’ve thought that Twitter would even move towards channels – not just feeds of what interests you, but defined channels of content – malleable, but suggested by Twitter and consumed by you and me, like a Content Pyramid of social; news, sports, television – separate streams but related, suggested and fiercely quick to adjust to real-world, real-time events. Real-time is where Twitter’s dilemma lies as it’s impossible to police Twitter in real-time. Trolls come, they spit their filth, they go. They may be back. The person on the receiving end sometimes ignores, laughs or shrugs off a malintentioned comment, but ominous threats can leave people truly upset, hurt and threatened and some are put in genuine fear for their lives. To report the matter to Twitter, a user can fill in a 14 question form to identify the Tweet and the sender – but I’m unsure how long that generally takes to be acted upon. As of last Saturday, too long it seems, which is Twitter’s real failing in this matter – take concerns seriously and the public will bear with you. Much of this is new for us users and new for Twitter corporately, but not listening to us is far worse than making a mistake in how they respond. [Read More ]
