Twitter CEO says company losing users because of trolls

Bloomberg

 

Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo will take the microphone later today to talk about earnings and the company’s user growth. But it’s what the CEO recently said in an internal forum that has most people’s attention Thursday.
According to internal messages obtained by The Verge, Costolo takes full responsibility for Twitter’s poor job in dealing with abuse, an issue he says is costing it core customers. Costolo made the comments after an employee asked on the internal forum whether Twitter TWTR, +8.43%   should be doing more, according to The Verge.
“We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years,” Costolo apparently said. He added that abuse on the microblogging platform is what everyone talks about, there’s no excuse for Twitter’s slow-footed handing of it, and that the company is “going to start kicking these people off right and left.”
Twitter declined to comment on the forum messages.
Dealing with sensitive content has been a challenge for Twitter. The company was pressed to respond to how some users harassed Robin Williams’s daughter, after her father died, as well as to the constant abuse and doxxing of women who spoke out during the height of the gamergate controversy. Celebrities--Twitter’s power users who generate valuable content for the service--have also been expressing their displeasure at the rising vitriol they face on the service.

Original post found here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/twitter-ceo-says-company-losing-users-because-of-trolls-2015-02-05