14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter’s Dick Costolo had taken a first step in tackling harassment of the microblogging site by admitting that they do have a problem with trolls. However, not many other effective measures have been implemented since the public confession.
Although he said the company would concentrate more on dealing with online abuse, promising to kick "those people off right and left," there has not been much of a change on the platform. What’s more, things seem to have gotten even worse.
If before, users complained that they were unable to cope with the troll infestation on the site, Twitter is now facing backlash from advertisers as well who call out the company for being unable to handle the increasingly large number of abusive tweets.
A recent series of promoted tweets has sparked users’ ire as it urges transgender people to end their lives. The posts, which supposedly belonged to Australian feminist Caitlin Roper, created quite some controversy after they started showing up on users’ profiles.
Twitter Ads has quite a few glitches
It would not be the first time such a thing takes place. Earlier this month, a hacker known as "weev" conducted a "social experiment" and invested some money in Twitter Ads to promote racist tweets and support white supremacy.
Even though Twitter quickly deleted the messages in question, the troll proved his point on how oblivious the company can be when it comes to the content advertised on the site.
As for the latest such attempt, users had the same reactions before realizing that the account was a fake one as the handle was slightly different from the genuine one.
However, it does not really matter who promotes the negative ads. The transphobic tweets showed once more how lax Twitter security measures are regarding harassment on the platform.
One of the promoted ads read: "Trannies are living a delusion. You can help them escape their delusions by beating them senseless. Go out & start beating trannies now."
"I have been impersonated online before. Last year a man made a copy of my twitter profile, complete with my image and bio info and used it to offer myself up for sex online," Roper told the Daily Dot.
The feminist also said that she had been the target of cyberbullying on the platform for some time now and that since Twitter was unable to do anything for her, she had resorted to authorities. However, the only suggestion they had was for her to close down her account.