Twitter adds new feature for reporting tweets to police

Among Twitter's latest efforts to combat trolls and the other abusive users on its platform is a new method for reporting threats to the police. The social network has just rolled out the feature, adding it as an option on the screen that is presented when filing a report about a threatening tweet. The new feature is available today, and utilizes the user's own email address to provide a stock notice for law enforcement containing all of the relevant information.

Twitter announced the feature on its blog today, saying the new feature makes it easier for its users to report a tweet they feel is threatening enough to require police intervention. This is done by filing a general Twitter report about the tweet, then selecting an "Email report" feature offered at the end of the process.

This will result in a summary of the report being sent to the user's email, including the tweet and its URL, the username, and a timestamp, among other things, as well as a link to the service's Law Enforcement Guidelines, which inform police officers of how to proceed in requesting additional information from Twitter.

Notifying police about the threatening tweet is still the user's own responsibility, but the summary will make it easier to forward the information to one's location agency and provide them with all the information they need to proceed. Be sure to check out the timeline below for related news!

SOURCE: Twitter Blog