Tweet Cleaning

Image via CrunchBase

Responding to an online petition supporting British activist Caroline Criado-Perez, the target of abusive posts that included rape threats, microblogger colossus Twitter this week said it will add a software-friendly button that will enable users to report offensive posts, the New York Times reported.

In the last month, Twitter already added such a button to its iPhone and iPad versions, and will expand the report abuse function to its Android and desktop Web versions, according to the Times article..  Del Harvey, the company's senior director for trust and safety, cedes that the company can't monitor the more than 400 million tweets posted daily, and notes that Twitter already has in place a complaint-reporting system, albeit one that involves completing a form.

Besides the button, Twitter also recommends that users unfollow offensive accounts, block abusive tweeters and report threatening messages to police.

All the World's a-Twitter

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 Twitter has surpassed 200 million users monthly, the San Francisco-based microblogger announced this week, via a tweet, naturally.

"There are now more than 200m monthly active @twitter users. You are the pulse of the planet. We're grateful for your ongoing support!", the company tweeted, within the 140-character limit, yet. As reported by Cnet.com, Twitter users produce one billion tweets every two days.

Never have so many done so much that means so little. Later this year, according to the Cnet post, Twitter is joining forces with tv ratings giant Nielsen to develop a tweet-based measure.

Twitter's vice-president of media described his company as "the world's digital water cooler."

Maybe because Twitter is refreshing but has no nutritional value.

Maltweeting Free Expression?

Image via CrunchBaseSan Francisco-based microblogger monolith Twitter will selectively block tweets in specific countries as it continues to grow its social platform worldwide, Reuters reports.

In a business move that will enable the microblogging network to broaden its global user base, Twitter will adapt to governments internationally whose notions of freedom of expression do not mirror those in the U.S. Twitter will post a censorship notice whenever it removes a tweet at the behest of a government and will use the chillingeffects.org Web site to house removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals, according to the Huffington Post.

Twitter offered  the legal restriction on "pro-Nazi content" imposed by the countries of Germany and France as an example of a restriction to which it might accede. The announcement marks a policy shift by the six-year-old social media company, which in January 2011, coinciding with the so-called "Arab Spring" uprisings throughout the Middle East, posted The Tweets Must Flow stating that it would not remove Tweets based on their content.

Twitter boasts roughly 100 million users, according to the Huffington Post report.

Crossing the Pond by Subpoena to Get Brit Twitterer's Personal Data

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe Herald Scotland reports that the South Tyneside Council of the coastal town of South Shields, England, has brought a California legal action against San Francisco-based Twitter to ferret out the identity of Mr. Monkey.

What sounds like a prolonged Monty Python sketch may have profound implications for social media users in the U.K. A pseudonymous microblogger, "Mr. Monkey," has been posting allegedly false and defamatory remarks about South Tyneside councillors and staffers. Suit was instituted in California and a subpoena sent to Twitter seeking personal information concerning the Mr. Monkey account.  Twitter did not comment in The Herald Scotland article.