Zelda Williams, the daughter of comedian Robin Williams, was
run off of the social site by abuse in the wake of her father's
apparent suicide.
"We will not tolerate abuse of this nature on Twitter," Del
Harvey, Twitter's vice president of trust and safety, said in a
statement. "We have suspended a number of accounts related
to this issue for violating our rules and we are in the process of
evaluating how we can further improve our policies to better
handle tragic situations like this one.
"This includes expanding our policies regarding self-harm and
private information, and improving support for family members
of deceased users."
Zelda Williams abandoned her Twitter and Instagram accounts
Tuesday after saying at least two people were sending her
Photoshopped images of her father's dead body and other
disturbing messages -- some blaming her for father's death.
"I'm sorry. I should've risen above," she wrote in her final
tweet. "Deleting this from my devices for a good long time,
maybe forever. Time will tell. Goodbye."
The episode proves that, with the anonymity of the Internet,
some people will be horrible no matter the situation.
Earlier, Williams, 25, had asked her followers to report the
abusive accounts to Twitter, but said they appeared to be
creating new accounts after being banned by the site. She
later deleted her request, which called the abusive messages
"cruel and unnecessary."
On Instagram, she also addressed negativity targeting her in
an announcement that she'd be taking a break from the
photo-sharing app.
"I will be leaving this account for a bit while I heal and decide
if I'll be deleting it or not," she wrote. "In this difficult time,
please try to be respectful."
Williams also touched on the personal attacks, albeit in a more
light-hearted way, in a statement she posted on blogging site
Tumblr.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
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