Twitter Introduces "Print Police Report" Option To Tackle Cyber Bullying

Twitter is getting serious about tackling harassment and cyberbullying on its microblogging platform, adding a way for victims of abuse to print off police reports.

When the user goes to block, mute or report the Twitter account, under report there will now be a way to print off a police report, which can then be sent or given to a police officer in charge of the harassment case.

Twitter is working to make sure it can support all the victims of abuse online, to stop trolls on the platform. Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo claimed it was his fault the network had not handled the trolls, and would ramp up its effectiveness at dealing with abuse.

Considering the anonymity factor on Twitter plays into the wave of abuse, it might be time for the microblogging site to start paving the way for more validation on real name and address.

This would go against Twitter’s early policies, which heavily supported the right to freedom of alias and address. Essentially, users can create as many accounts as they want and have them all based in different countries, without any issue.

Twitter will be able to see the IP, but there is no real deterrent stopping a user from creating a large amount of accounts. This means even if a report if filed, a user might be able to skip away from the authorities and continue harassing on other accounts.

Hopefully, Twitter will be open to more IP bans and other verification tools in the future, since Facebook has shown these are the ways to really ban abuse from the network.