Thread by @angie_rasmussen

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As a frequent target of harassment who routinely receives threats of physical & sexual violence, Dr. Gottlieb nails it.

I cope because it's valuable to advocate for scientists & public health as best I can & I'm fortunate to have this platform. But Twitter can do better.

And I'm not the only one. Many of my colleagues have had similar run-ins with people threatening us, our friends, & our families. And accounts that consistently encourage this behavior continue unchecked, as do those that actually engage in this behavior.

Here's an example. This account has been locked multiple times for violations of every @TwitterSafety rule in the book, yet is still not suspended. "Violent threats," "Hateful conduct," "Abusive behavior"...still gets his nth 2nd chance to regain access.

Here's one tweet that I reported from this account. I tagged @TwitterSafety. Nothing happened. Meanwhile he was free to harass me & numerous colleagues ad nauseum. And several bigger, verified accounts kept following him, winking at him & amplifying him.

And what was amplified? Sharing personal information about people's family members, including their children. Naming their workplaces & schools. Encouraging people to harass them there. False allegations of serious crimes. Abhorrent sexism, racism, & ableism. Viciousness. Lies.

Only after weeks of this did @TwitterSafety step in. But vast damage can be done in that time. Not only does this encourage people to harm others, it can encourage the targets to harm themselves. So miss me with "but we can't censor people or silence the debate" excuses.

A relentless campaign of social media abuse can inflict severe damage to the target's mental health. That's the point: to break down the target by causing them so much anguish and endangering them to the point they leave the debate.

So who exactly is being silenced here?

Being the subject of a Twitter brigade can be agonizing. It's doubly so when you talk about what has happened to you & the pain it has caused, & that's trivialized & you are blamed for bringing it upon yourself.

This is not about disagreement or insulting people. It's a tactic.

And @TwitterSafety needs to seriously improve its ability to distinguish between protected speech—even when it's offensive—and patterns of dehumanizing abuse before they get to the stage of causing irreparable physical or emotional harm.