These days Twitter has become a playground for trolls who bully their way across the platform and receive nothing but a mere slap on the wrist. Itās the equivalent to a very light sentence without any repercussion. Bob Villain who claims not to be Gary S. Kadet, a former troll who infected Twitter by attaching himself to every hashtag of the writer community like a parasite, has inappropriately tweeted to authors, agents, and publishers. His most common tweets are insulting to the community as evidence by screenshots.
A study into the history of Gary Kadet revealed similar tweets of insults and boasts of superiority in the publishing industry while knocking down others in a demeaning way. Garyās account was suspended back in August and now Bob Villain has made his debut by promoting discord and multiple attacks against many authors including traditionally published author MR. Rutter.
Authors such as Gloria L. Geiger and JP Dailing defended themselves against these attacks from Bob. When Bobās tweets were reported Twitter responded back that he had not violated their rules. Twitter, however, banned Gloria L. Geiger and JP Dailing for posting gifs of Star Wars.
Bob Villain continued to wreck havoc across Twitter, targeting the tweets of women while mostly deflecting the tweets from men as being less than par his time. Women authors and agents were continously harassed by Bob who infiltrated the hashtag amquerying and the hashtag amwriting trends to brag about his success and to discourage aspiring authors, mostly women.
When Twitter finally took action it was only to inform the reporters that he had violated Twitter rules. Bob Villainās account remains running and he is able to tweet and post as he pleases.
This leads to a few questions. How is Bob getting away with this? One speculation is that Gary Kadet, who many believe Bob to be, works for Twitter in security. This may explain why Bob Villain receives a very light reprimand that does nothing to discourage his actions and why Gloria L. Geiger and JP Dailing have been banned for a tweet that was unharmful.
However, it is uncertain and unverifiable whether or not Gary/Bob works for Twitter. As it is determined that Gary and Bob are one and the same person, how is it that Garyās main account has been suspended but his alterego Bob, of which he denies excessively, remains on Twitter despite being twice in violation of Twitter rules?
It bears the question about Twitter itself, namely its integrity and security. Why hasnāt Twitter suspended the account of Bob Villain at JoeChristmas6? Why were the accounts of Gloria L Geiger and JP Dailing suspended for using gifs? Banning the victims is essentially targeting the innocent while supporting the idealeogy that bullies and trolls can get away with relentless attacks. This promotes the idea of carte blanche on behalf of trolls, such as Bob who are free to boast about how they got away with it.
Changes need implemented into Twitterās system to prevent victim blaming and rightfully punish the offender by suspending such accounts that violate Twitter rules. A human examination for such brusque behavior that offends a user on Twitter is best utilized rather than the use of a bot programmed to look for certain keywords of offense. Further, a personās suspended account needs direct prevention of returning or escaping such a ban.
Twitter, on behalf of the entire author community, we urge you to take a look into your system and correctly ban the bullies who offend and attack a multitude of people throughout the community while fully restoring the accounts of the victims you have wrongfully thrown into Twitter jail. We urge you to use real people to examine the reports made against a member of Twitter, to rightfully ban those causing discord and harm to numerous members, and to keep those suspended accounts from returning again by blocking their IP address.
Ā Lissa Gromley is the author of The Warriors: Crimson Chaos, a YA contemporary fantasy, Super George: The Cocky Sockpuppet, a short story, and Dick Cockee, an erotic, satire flashfiction under the pen name L. Cockley. She is currently writing Storm: The Last Aleantylar, Book 2 of the Warriors and Turning the Tide, a sci-fi novel.
Ā Ā Twitter Needs Change These days Twitter has become a playground for trolls who bully their way across the platform and receive nothing but a mere slap on the wrist.
