Women are Abused on Twitter in Some Way Every 30 Seconds

Global artificial intelligence software product company Element AI and Amnesty International have partnered up in a study to see just how abused women are on Twitter’s platform.

Their investigation has found that women on Twitter are being sent abusive content every 30 seconds. Every 30 seconds a woman on the platform is harassed, abused, or sent some kind of threatening message.

The group surveyed millions of tweets that were received by 788 journalists and politicians from the U.S. and the U.K. in 2017 and discovered that 1.1 million abusive tweets were sent to the women in the study throughout the year.

Women of color were especially abused, with black women having the worst. The group found that this minority was 84% more likely than white woman to be mentioned in abusive tweets that were related to gender, race, and sexuality. One out of every ten tweets that mentioned black women was abusive or problematic, compared to one in fifteen for white women.

“We found that, although abuse is targeted at women across the political spectrum, women of color were much more likely to be impacted, and black women are disproportionately targeted,” said Milena Marin, senior advisor for tactical research at Amnesty International.

“Twitter’s failure to crack down on this problem means it is contributing to the silencing of already marginalized voices,” she added.

“Our abusive behavior policy strictly prohibits behavior that harasses, intimidates or silences another users voice, ” a Twitter spokesperson said to CNBC Make It.

The spokesperson added, “We are also investing in better technology and tools to enable us to more proactively identify abusive, violative material, to limit its spread and reach on the platform and to encourage healthier conversations.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) and have not been compensated for this article.