TWITTER CEO DICK Costolo has told employees that the company “sucks” at dealing with abuse and trolls.
In memos obtained by The Verge, Costolo told employees that he was “ashamed” at how the website has dealt with the issue of trolling and cyber bullying since its inception.
I’m frankly ashamed of how poorly we’ve dealt with this issue during my tenure as CEO. 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.
Costolo took full responsibility for the website’s failure to adequately deal with the problem and pledged to start implementing measures that ensure the issue is addressed.
So now we’re going to fix it, and I’m going to take full responsibility for making sure that the people working night and day on this have the resources they need to address the issue, that there are clear lines of responsibility and accountability, and that we don’t equivocate in our decisions and choices.
Costolo’s remarks were in response to an employee’s query about last week’s episode of This American Life.
The episode featured a story by writer Lindy West in which she detailed her experiences dealing with relentless trolling on the website. Among other things, Twitter trolls assumed the identity of the West’s deceased father.
The segment received a lot of publicity and was shared widely on social media.
Costolo’s method for tackling the issue? Kicking people off the site.
We’re going to start kicking these people off right and left and making sure that when they issue their ridiculous attacks, nobody hears them.
Sounds like a start at least.
