Ask Twitter to review their anti bullying policies to provide effective and immediate help
The Issue
Jon Tennant died in a motorbike accident on the 9th April. His last months of life were clouded by intense and persistent cyber bullying of Twitter trolls, ex girlfriends, bogus claims of abuse and a false rape allegation. Nothing was ever bought to court, no evidence ever materialised and Twitter did not step in to help despite many, many reports.
Since Jon’s death Twitter has been tweeted again regarding the bullying, as there doesn’t seem to be an actual person or email/phone to contact, but the tweets have been ignored. The bullying continues, even after Jon has passed, now leaving his family to grief amidst insensitive, harassing and callous remarks.
Twitter has an anti harassment policy that specifies that Twitter will take active steps to prevent harassment, abusive behaviour and bullying.
The Twitter rules state around abuse/harassment:
’You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so.’
’We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.’
Recently Jon Tennant (@protohedgehog) was the target of directed verbal abuse, criticism, accusations and insults on Twitter. The comments extended to friends and family of Jon and resulted in a job lost, speaking engagements cancelled, depression and even suicidal thoughts. Jon moved to Bali to take a break from the stress of this cyber bullying. Jon died on the 9th April from a motorbike accident in Bali, while still vividly suffering the effects of the words on Twitter. Jon’s messages to friends and family around this time talk about intense psychological harm, suicidal thoughts and confusion.
The comments on Twitter began in late Autumn of 2019 and were still going on, with new tweets, in April of 2020.
Many of the Tweets were reported to Twitter, as abusive, hateful and as harassment. The Tweets were reported repeatedly by several individuals, and on a few occasions the context was given, hoping Twitter would investigate further.
Twitter states:
‘On Twitter, you should feel safe expressing your unique point of view. We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up.
In order to facilitate healthy dialogue on the platform, and empower individuals to express diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that harasses or intimidates, or is otherwise intended to shame or degrade others. In addition to posing risks to people’s safety, abusive behavior may also lead to physical and emotional hardship for those affected.’
On several occasions Twitter trolls (one having set up a website for the specific purpose of trolling), deliberately provoked others to engage in further harassment of Jon by posting a comment and ‘tagging’ several unrelated people in the tweet. Jon
was continuously subject to tweets that were degrading (such as calling him a homophobic trash bag, predator, abuser, and rapist). These unfounded tweets were reported but not removed. The authors of the tweets were not called out. His sister was called a dog and her religion was mocked. On the day Jon died he was still being called wicked, an abuser, and more. One tweet advised people to limit their affection for him, as even though dead, he was still a harasser.
People that defended Jon online over the past few months were targeted as promoting violence, not caring about victims, promoting harassment and called stupid, obtuse and were insulted. It’s important to note here that none of the people accusing Jon were able to produce any evidence, despite many opportunities and requests for evidence. In fact, personal texts between the lady accusing Jon of rape And Jon himself provided clear evidence that no such event occurred.
Twitter states: ‘ Twitter is reflective of real conversations happening in the world and that sometimes includes perspectives that may be offensive, controversial, and/or bigoted to others. While we welcome everyone to express themselves on our service, we will not tolerate behavior that harasses, threatens, or uses fear to silence the voices of others.’
We feel that the tweets aimed at Jon tennant over the past few months constitutes harassment, as per the legal definition and theTwitter definition. We also feel that Twitter did not respond adequently to a severe situation that left someone’s mental and psychological health damaged.
The legal definition of harassment according to the Equality Act UK 2010 can be summarised as unwanted conduct related to an individual which has the purpose of effect of violating the dignity of an individual, or creates an intimidating, hostile or degrading environment for the individual.
The tweets fall under the Defamation Act 2013, Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and potentially other laws governed by the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003.
Jon now can not defend himself but his family and friends want to prevent others from going through the same traumatic experience.
We are calling in Twitter to:
Apologise for not acting adequately in the situation relating to Jon Tennant.
Recognise that reporting a tweet is not enough. A transparent process should be in place so people that reported tweets are responded to by a person, and people are kept into the loop as to why tweets are removed or not removed.
Recognise that once a tweet is reported, being given the option to mute or block is not enough. Twitter should be more stringent in removing tweets and profiles. Twitter should delete tweets and profiles that break its rules repeatedly. Muting or blocking a person only prevent the blocker from seeing what they write. It does not stop them spreading further abuse.
Put in place a help centre where people can call and talk to a human. Currently it is nearly impossible to get in touch with Twitter without tweeting them. This means that it is difficult to report a situation, the current system promoting reporting of single tweets or a series of tweets, but not a situation.
To recognise that freedom of expression does not include false accusations, name calling, attacks by trolls, speculations, and to redefine harassment to fit in with the legal definition. Calling someone a ‘homophobic trash bag’ (one of the tweets against Jon) is not freedom of expression.
To change their policies to reflect that Twitter is not a forum for airing dirty laundry-it is not a court and is not equipped to handle accusations. The evidence can not be tested, a person cannot adequately defend themselves and fair trial rights are not guaranteed.
To put steps in place a policy and clear and transparent action plan to reduce mob behaviour and to respond to mob behaviour quicky when it occurs
Thank you for signing this petition.
Our aim is to reduce this happening to more people. No one deserves to be cyber bullied. Twitter can do much more, and we are calling on them to recognise that.
Petition Closed
The Issue
Jon Tennant died in a motorbike accident on the 9th April. His last months of life were clouded by intense and persistent cyber bullying of Twitter trolls, ex girlfriends, bogus claims of abuse and a false rape allegation. Nothing was ever bought to court, no evidence ever materialised and Twitter did not step in to help despite many, many reports.
Since Jon’s death Twitter has been tweeted again regarding the bullying, as there doesn’t seem to be an actual person or email/phone to contact, but the tweets have been ignored. The bullying continues, even after Jon has passed, now leaving his family to grief amidst insensitive, harassing and callous remarks.
Twitter has an anti harassment policy that specifies that Twitter will take active steps to prevent harassment, abusive behaviour and bullying.
The Twitter rules state around abuse/harassment:
’You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so.’
’We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.’
Recently Jon Tennant (@protohedgehog) was the target of directed verbal abuse, criticism, accusations and insults on Twitter. The comments extended to friends and family of Jon and resulted in a job lost, speaking engagements cancelled, depression and even suicidal thoughts. Jon moved to Bali to take a break from the stress of this cyber bullying. Jon died on the 9th April from a motorbike accident in Bali, while still vividly suffering the effects of the words on Twitter. Jon’s messages to friends and family around this time talk about intense psychological harm, suicidal thoughts and confusion.
The comments on Twitter began in late Autumn of 2019 and were still going on, with new tweets, in April of 2020.
Many of the Tweets were reported to Twitter, as abusive, hateful and as harassment. The Tweets were reported repeatedly by several individuals, and on a few occasions the context was given, hoping Twitter would investigate further.
Twitter states:
‘On Twitter, you should feel safe expressing your unique point of view. We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up.
In order to facilitate healthy dialogue on the platform, and empower individuals to express diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that harasses or intimidates, or is otherwise intended to shame or degrade others. In addition to posing risks to people’s safety, abusive behavior may also lead to physical and emotional hardship for those affected.’
On several occasions Twitter trolls (one having set up a website for the specific purpose of trolling), deliberately provoked others to engage in further harassment of Jon by posting a comment and ‘tagging’ several unrelated people in the tweet. Jon
was continuously subject to tweets that were degrading (such as calling him a homophobic trash bag, predator, abuser, and rapist). These unfounded tweets were reported but not removed. The authors of the tweets were not called out. His sister was called a dog and her religion was mocked. On the day Jon died he was still being called wicked, an abuser, and more. One tweet advised people to limit their affection for him, as even though dead, he was still a harasser.
People that defended Jon online over the past few months were targeted as promoting violence, not caring about victims, promoting harassment and called stupid, obtuse and were insulted. It’s important to note here that none of the people accusing Jon were able to produce any evidence, despite many opportunities and requests for evidence. In fact, personal texts between the lady accusing Jon of rape And Jon himself provided clear evidence that no such event occurred.
Twitter states: ‘ Twitter is reflective of real conversations happening in the world and that sometimes includes perspectives that may be offensive, controversial, and/or bigoted to others. While we welcome everyone to express themselves on our service, we will not tolerate behavior that harasses, threatens, or uses fear to silence the voices of others.’
We feel that the tweets aimed at Jon tennant over the past few months constitutes harassment, as per the legal definition and theTwitter definition. We also feel that Twitter did not respond adequently to a severe situation that left someone’s mental and psychological health damaged.
The legal definition of harassment according to the Equality Act UK 2010 can be summarised as unwanted conduct related to an individual which has the purpose of effect of violating the dignity of an individual, or creates an intimidating, hostile or degrading environment for the individual.
The tweets fall under the Defamation Act 2013, Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and potentially other laws governed by the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003.
Jon now can not defend himself but his family and friends want to prevent others from going through the same traumatic experience.
We are calling in Twitter to:
Apologise for not acting adequately in the situation relating to Jon Tennant.
Recognise that reporting a tweet is not enough. A transparent process should be in place so people that reported tweets are responded to by a person, and people are kept into the loop as to why tweets are removed or not removed.
Recognise that once a tweet is reported, being given the option to mute or block is not enough. Twitter should be more stringent in removing tweets and profiles. Twitter should delete tweets and profiles that break its rules repeatedly. Muting or blocking a person only prevent the blocker from seeing what they write. It does not stop them spreading further abuse.
Put in place a help centre where people can call and talk to a human. Currently it is nearly impossible to get in touch with Twitter without tweeting them. This means that it is difficult to report a situation, the current system promoting reporting of single tweets or a series of tweets, but not a situation.
To recognise that freedom of expression does not include false accusations, name calling, attacks by trolls, speculations, and to redefine harassment to fit in with the legal definition. Calling someone a ‘homophobic trash bag’ (one of the tweets against Jon) is not freedom of expression.
To change their policies to reflect that Twitter is not a forum for airing dirty laundry-it is not a court and is not equipped to handle accusations. The evidence can not be tested, a person cannot adequately defend themselves and fair trial rights are not guaranteed.
To put steps in place a policy and clear and transparent action plan to reduce mob behaviour and to respond to mob behaviour quicky when it occurs
Thank you for signing this petition.
Our aim is to reduce this happening to more people. No one deserves to be cyber bullied. Twitter can do much more, and we are calling on them to recognise that.
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Petition created on 20 April 2020