Twitter CEO Admits “We Suck At Dealing With Abuse & Trolls”

An issue that Twitter has battled for years now is user retention. One issue that causes users to give up on the service is the abuse that occurs on the platform. The Verge obtained an internal memo from Twitter CEO Dick Costolo that states:

[pullquote]“We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years. It’s no secret and the rest of the world talks about it every day. “[/pullquote]

The internal communication came on the heels of abuse directed towards Lindy West that included the creation of a fake account as her dead father. Twitter’s harassment policy has been lengthy, cumbersome and rather ineffective to date. Over the past few months this has been highlighted due to some flagrant examples of abuse geared specifically towards women.

The tone in Mr. Costolo’s message was heated –with the anger directed at himself. He stated that what was happening was absurd and that he takes “full responsibility for not being more aggressive on this front.” A follow up note made the message crystal:

[blockquote cite=”Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO”]Let me be very very clear about my response here. I take PERSONAL responsibility for our failure to deal with this as a company. I thought i did that in my note, so let me reiterate what I said, which is that I take personal responsibility for this. I specifically said “It’s nobody’s fault but mine.”[/blockquote]

Twitter stock has seen a nice jump over the past 5 days leading up to the earnings call today. Expect to hear a few questions on this front (and for some new tools to help combat trolls in the near future.) For more information see The Verge.