Twitter's UK rep apologises to women for on-line abuse

Twitter has apologised to the women who have encountered violent abuse on Twitter from a number of anonymous users.

Tony Wang the General Manager of Twitter UK offered an unequivocal apology for the abuse some women have been subjected to, saying it "was not acceptable in the real world and it's not acceptable on Twitter".

The issue has been raised by a number of high profile women including the journalist, feminist campaigner and co-founder of thewomensroom.org.uk, Caroline Criado-Perez and the Labour MP Stella Creasy. The Conservative MP Claire Perry has also faced abuse after campaigning for restrictions on access to on-line pornography.

Ms Criado-Perez was subjected to an ongoing series of violent and misogynist messages and threats on Twitter after she campaigned for a woman to feature on Bank of England notes. Ms Creasy has received similar death and rape threats after her support for Ms Criado-Perez's stance.

Both women have refused to ignore the threats, instead confronting account users on some occasions and re-tweeting their messages with the intention of exposing both the issue and the abusers.

Stella Creasy told the BBC earlier this week: "I think we are evolving how we understand the impact of the internet and social media on crime and how it's committed. But let's be very clear, this isn't about free speech.

"Free speech is incredibly important on and offline, but it's not free speech for someone to be threatened with rape. We have to have ways of dealing with that and we mustn't misunderstand the level of cyberharassment taking place in this country.

"That's what we are looking for Twitter to play a key role in because actually if Twitter didn't exist, these people would still propagate these kind of views."

The police are investigating a number of threats that have been reported to them and have already made one arrest. Some police sources have acknowledged that they need to continue to review and adjust policy in an evolving social media enviroment.

It is understood that Twitter is working on combatting on-line abuse including introducing a "report abuse" button to its service.

Mr Wang tweeted on Saturday morning:

"I personally apologize to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through."

"The abuse they've received is simply not acceptable. It's not acceptable in the real world, and it's not acceptable on Twitter."

Ms Criado-Perez responded saying: "Thanks for your apology @TonyW, much appreciated. I hope @twitter will be swiftly implementing an auto-populate system for report form."

In a further indication that the social media site is taking the issue seriously, Mr Wang has also sent an email to both Ms Creasy and Ms Criado-Perez in order to "chat".