LONDON (AP) -- If Twitter is the chirping chatterbox of the Internet, trolls are its dark underground denizens.
But the subject has received an unprecedented level of public exposure this week, sparking debates on British radio and television news programs and articles in national newspapers — even the tabloids. Creasy and Criado-Perez are among a growing group who have decided to face down the abusers, retweeting their messages in an attempt to "name and shame" the offenders, and reporting the most threatening messages to police.
Padraig Reidy of civil liberties group Index on Censorship cautioned that the "report abuse" button was no quick fix — it could itself be abused by governments to silence their opponents or by celebrities to muzzle their critics.
Anti-trolling campaigners have already taken matters into their own hands — retweeting abuse in order to expose the problem.
LONDON (AP) -- If Twitter is the chirping chatterbox of the Internet, trolls are its dark underground denizens.
But the subject has received an unprecedented level of public exposure this week, sparking debates on British radio and television news programs and articles in national newspapers — even the tabloids. Creasy and Criado-Perez are among a growing group who have decided to face down the abusers, retweeting their messages in an attemp
t to "name and shame" the offenders, and reporting the most threatening messages to police.
Padraig Reidy of civil liberties group Index on Censorship cautioned that the "report abuse" button was no quick fix — it could itself be abused by governments to silence their opponents or by celebrities to muzzle their critics.
Anti-trolling campaigners have already taken matters into their own hands — retweeting abuse in order to expose the problem.