Artist spray-paints abusive tweets in front of Twitter’s German office
A German-Israeli satirist has painted abusive tweets in front of Twitter’s office in Hamburg in an effort to draw attention to what he says is the company’s failure in combating hate speech. The BBC reports that Shahak Shapira reported 300 incidents of abuse over six months, but Twitter responded to just nine, claiming those instances did not violate the social-network’s terms of use.
“The statements I reported weren’t just plain insults or jokes, but absolutely serious threats of violence, homophobia, xenophobia, or Holocaust denial,” Shapira says, in a YouTube video. Shapira, who is Jewish, said he also reported 150 comments to Facebook, and 80 percent of those were removed within a few days.
