Tag Archives: abuse

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint: Twitter’s Tools for Troll Patrol

Twitter has become a wonderful tool for news and communication, but as with other forms of participation in the online world, it can also attract trolls and other idiots who like to harass users. Like Facebook, Twitter has had basic controls available for awhile to block those who overstep the boundaries of civilized behavior or ignore its Official Rules, but the company announced last week that is was “enhancing our in-product harassment reporting.”

In a tweet, Twitter even posted a short demonstration video showing the new reporting tools on the mobile app. Basically, it just takes a couple of taps now to block a user, flag a post and file a report to the company. Even witnesses — but not direct victims — of the abuse, can report violations. Twitter says it has improved response times to these reports and is adding a new Blocked Accounts page to each user’s Twitter settings. People on the blocked list will not be able to view your Twitter profile page either.

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The company is currently testing the new tools and plans to roll them out to all users over the next few weeks. Twitter also promises further improvements and what it calls new enforcement procedures for abusive accounts. While the determined abusers will probably still find a way to harass, Twitter’s troll crackdown may help with a lot of the less-determined pests.

Episode 58 News: Drive My Car

We’re deep into summer and you know what time that is — it’s time for DEFCON, the annual gathering of hacking enthusiasts in Las Vegas. There have been some announcements ahead of the event, including two researchers who were able to stop, start and steer a car with an old Nintendo handset and also control it with a laptop. (Forbes has some video.)

It wouldn’t be the Internet without malicious trolls, and heinous behavior over in the UK and an online petition recently has led Twitter to promise a new button on every tweet for reporting abuse on a company blog. Critics of the plan have chimed in to basically say it’s time to stop blaming technology and social media for society’s problems like rampant misogyny and racism, and maybe we ought to do something about those. Others worry that the abuse button itself may get abused.

bundroidGoogle popped out a couple of shiny new pieces of hardware last week, including the upgraded Nexus 7 tablet and a tiny, pocket-drive-sized media streamer called the Chromecast. The latter has some bugs to work out and a limited number of services it streams, but it is getting decent early reviews. However, Vimeo and RedBox Instant are also on the way. Google also found time to make big improvements to the old Zagat site, which it owns.

Apple released its iTunes 11.1 beta software to its registered developers this week along with the fourth version of its iOS 7 beta. As for hardware, the rumor mill is still grinding away with talk of a possible lower-priced iPhone arriving with the annual high-end upgrade. The new top-of-the-line model may also include a biometric fingerprint sensor, according to programmers looking deep into the iOS 7 betaware. Apple has a few legal issues to deal with this week as well. A Chinese labor rights group has a report out with new allegations against one the contractors used to make iPhones and other devices; Apple told the Wall Street Journal it was working with the group and investigating. Closer to home, some former Apple Store employees have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Mother Ship claiming retail workers routinely had to wait around for up to half an hour without pay while managers searched their bags.

In Star Wars news, composer John Williams will be returning to score the seventh film in the series, having done the music for the previous six installments. Over Doctor Who way, the 50th anniversary episode — the one which current companion Jenna Coleman says changes everything — will air November 23rd, with plans for the show to be simulcast in 200 countries around the world. (The show is broadcast at 7:00 p.m. in the United Kingdom, so make the calculations for your time zone here.)

And finally, Radio Times is reporting that Netflix will temporarily remove Star Trek III: The Search for Spock from its streaming inventory while it adds authentic subtitles for the film’s dialogue that’s spoken in the Klingon and Vulcan languages instead of having missing subtitles or the lines dubbed in English. This has been a complaint from fans of the film for quite awhile, although some may not need subtitles anyway. yIn nI’ yISIQ ‘ej yIchep!