In his article “Twitter’s “Freedom of Expression” is a Privilege; Not a Right” in the Huffington Post on Tuesday Adam Kerr said:

"If we, as Twitter users, don't want to see our current privilege restricted then we have a responsibility to conduct ourselves with a more constructive and civil demeanor toward peers, public figures, and brands."

This is very true and I'd like to mention another facet of the problem.

It's perfectly possible, and in fact incredibly easy, if you have an unpopular point of view with any group on Twitter, even though you may have interests in the same area as those who 'despise' you, for them to indulge in spreading slanderous and libellous material, and then frame you as a troll when you try to correct it.  Here is an example.

If you have interests in the same area that are important and you don't want them to be derailed, then you cannot simply follow the 'leave it alone and walk away' mantra.  In fact, they may not be actively communicating with you at all, but with others about you.  But even if you have the proof, Twitter will not take action on this, although they do have policies on 'spamming' and 'harassment'.

Meanwhile the recipients of these lies, who might number in the thousands, even for just an ordinary person, are all made into an unknowing cyber-mob. From my own experience, I've discovered that the likelihood of people being prepared to even examine the possibility that their tweeps might be indulging in this sort of behaviour is extremely low.  I've received statements like "I'm not the Twitter police", "I don't get involved in personal arguments", or "spats".  Yet the example I've linked to above is fairly serious as it shows someone publishing a substantial slur on an individual purely due to his association with someone else, who happens to be me, and then frames my polite objection by way of a heads-up that it's not ok to implicate people as being pedophiles, as an 'all out attack', having got rid of the evidence of our actual communication. This is something that I’m fairly certain that anyone would object to if it happened to them.

It may be shocking to many, I suppose, that the people behind this particular smear campaign are largely women, but women indulging in relational bullying does seem to be another facet of social media that could do with more awareness.   Among all the sexism and prejudice constantly flagged up in all media, what could be easier than to be a woman (or group of women) intent on destorying another on Twitter and if someone should try to call you out, to simply cry, "harrassment", "trolls", and watch all your nice non-sexist male followers rally round you to help you crush your enemy? Classic.

So what is the remedy for this kind of twattage on Twitter?