Twitter updates tools to combat abuse

SAN FRANCISCO — CEO Dick Costolo has pledged to reduce the amount of abuse on Twitter.

Now the company is rolling out new tools aimed at combating it.

"Overall, we now review five times as many user reports as we did previously, and we have tripled the size of the support team focused on handling abuse reports," Tina Bhatnagar, vice president of user services, wrote in a blog post.​

Twitter is hoping changes announced Wednesday will help keep people who harass others off Twitter.

In December, Twitter made it easier to report abuse and harassment.

It also began allowing people who witness abuse, not just the victims of the abuse, to report it.

Twitter said it's expanding that ability to reporting impersonation, self harm and inappropriate posting of personal information.

Twitter has faced growing pressure to better shield users from abuse, especially as its user growth has stagnated.

Earlier this month Costolo said he was "ashamed" at how the company has handled issues with abuse reported by users and took "full responsibility" for not tackling the problem more aggressively.

According to an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Costolo responded to a story about Lindy West, a writer frequently targeted with abuse on Twitter.

"We suck at dealing with abuse," Costolo said in the memo.