Women don’t flag Twitter abuse because 100% say it’s not worth the effort

Eighty-four percent of female respondents who use the platform "numerous times a day” said they have reported abuse, and 25% said they were dissatisfied with the response they received from doing so. — Photo by Rob Hampson on Unsplash

As Twitter rolls out a new process for reporting abuse on its site, an Amnesty International survey details just how futile it feels to flag bad behaviour on the social-media platform. A full 100% of those who experienced online abuse or harassment but did not report it said, why bother.

Amnesty’s 2021 Twitter Scorecard, released on Tuesday, included a survey of 500 women about their habits on the app, as well as the treatment they receive from other users. Women make up approximately 32% of Twitter’s 69 million users in the US, and 23% of survey respondents said they had experienced online harassment or abuse. The more women use the platform, the more likely they are to be on the receiving end of abuse.