Twitter chief lawyer Vijaya Gadde announced new steps to protect its users from the posting of non-consensual photos of compromising poses and abusive and threatening comments. “Freedom of expression means little as our underlying philosophy if we continue to allow voices to be silenced because they are afraid to speak up. We need to do a better job combating abuse without chilling or silencing speech,” wrote Gadde. (The Washington Post, April 16, 2015, by Vijaya Gadde, Twitter general counsel)
After criticism of its failure to protect its users in recent incidents, Twitter is changing its procedures. As Gadde put it, “In addition to improving users’ ability to control their own Twitter experiences, in recent months we have invested heavily in tools and enforcement solutions that enable us to better detect, act on and limit the reach of abusive content.” Twitter will install filters for certain accounts to allow users to block out content they find abusive. (ZDNet, April 17, 2015, by Zack Whittaker for Zero Day)