A new report finds that hateful tweets directed at Vice President Harris are rampant, while Twitter has been slow to respond, and at times failed to act properly.
The replies to tweets from Vice President Kamala Harris, the nation's highest ranking Black female official, routinely include racist, sexist and graphic messages threatening her safety. A new report finds that hateful tweets directed at Harris are rampant, while Twitter has been slow to respond, and at times failed to act properly.
A spokesperson for Twitter told CBS News the platform's initial assessment of the tweets reported to them was incorrect and admitted mistakes were made in enforcing the platform's content moderation rules. Bot Sentinel, which uses Twitter's engagement rules as a guide for its research studies, released a set of 40 tweets last week. Twitter initially removed only two of those, ignored 18 of them, and said the remaining 20 abusive tweets – including one threatening to kill Harris – didn't violate the platform's policies, according to Bot Sentinel.
Twitter's rules of engagement prohibit users from targeting others with repeated racial slurs that aim to dehumanize and promote negative stereotypes. The platform also forbids content that wishes or expresses a desire for the death of another user.