Twitter releases ‘report abuse’ button for tweets on Android & web

Twitter introduced a “report abuse” button for individual tweets today after a U.K. woman was harrassed on the social network last month.

When Caroline Criado-Perez started receiving rape threats and other abusive tweets for her stance on women being printed on currency, digital bystander Kim Graham started a petition. The petition demanded that Twitter release better tools for reporting abuse instead of requiring users to dig deep into the company’s help section.

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The petition was hosted on Change.org and received nearly 140,000 signatures of support.

Twitter soon responded that it was already working to include easier reporting tools and had released a similar report abuse feature for individual tweets. This button was only available on Twitter’s iOS app at the time, but starting today it is available on its Android app and is rolling out on the web.

“It’s great that Twitter has listened,” said Criado-Perez of the roll-out. “There are still issues: Users have to agree for the report to be potentially shared with the harasser, and there are some boxes that could be auto-populated that aren’t, but overall, this is a fantastic first step.”

A Twitter representative explained to Criado-Perez that it is dedicated to creating “a safe place for our users” and that it is “adding additional staff to the teams that handle abuse reports.”