Ariel Waldman claims she was harassed on Twitter, and Twitter refused to ban the user responsible. This has caused a huge outcry across the web, with many people accusing Twitter of negligence and cruelty.
This is an example of something I have often found to be a problem on many social websites (for example, online forums). The owners and operators of the website should not be responsible, legally or morally, for the conduct of its users. A social platform provides a canvas upon which people can express themselves. Asking the company behind the social platform to moderate the user-generated content is like holding a notepad manufacturer responsible for offensive messages written on its paper, or a brick manufacturer responsible for unpleasant graffiti daubed upon walls constructed from its products.
Perhaps Twitter could (and should) have been more clear in their TOS, but in the end the responsibility for moderating the content of a social network should lie with the participants in that network, not the creators. Once censorship begins to creep in, all is lost. It’s impossible to draw lines between acceptable and unacceptable content, and it’s impossible to please everyone.
As Twitter employee Jason Goldman states on the support thread for this issue:
What we believe is that Twitter is a recipient-driven utility; you choose what content appears in your timeline. We offer tools like block so that users can distance themselves from others with whom they have disputes or disagreements.
So if someone offends you on Twitter, you know where to click:
[…] Twitter and responsibility […]