Social media has increasingly become a dangerous place for women. There are so many stalkers, harassers, lunatics and “men’s rights advocates” out there that it’s a wonder how any woman can hang out on social media at any time. Social media companies – specifically Instagram and Twitter – have been especially slow in dealing with the threats, creepiness and craziness women get specifically, although to be fair, those companies know they have a problem and they’ve started getting more proactive about how they deal with it. But… is there a difference between trolling and harassing? Is there a difference between calling out a Mean Girl and actually doing harm to said Mean Girl? That’s the question.
After Kim Kardashian dropped the receipts a little more than a week ago, Taylor Swift’s detractors flooded her Instagram comments with snake emojis. Some screencaps:
I didn’t think of it as harassment at the time. I thought it was just funny. I mean, a snake emoji is not threatening. A snake emoji is not harassment. It wasn’t even a unique phenomenon – Beyonce’s Beyhive regularly floods social media posts with bee emojis and lemon emojis, like they did with Rachel Roy. But to the most sensitive and delicate Innocent Blonde Child in the world, of course a flood of snake emojis would rise to the top of “Problems Instagram-Corporate Needed To Deal With Immediately.”
Taylor Swift has reportedly been given an Instagram tool to block out negative fan comments on her social media account. The Times report that the secret weapon enables her to shape the comments about her on her social media profile, rather than contact them about each one. The Bad Blood singer has been inundated with comments and ‘snake’ emojis as fans turned on her following her recent spat with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
As well as Taylor, the tool is only available to business users – the new feature is intended to stop brands and advertisers who do not want offensive comments polluting their posts. But now users have accused Instagram of blocking negative feedback on the singer’s social media.
‘So instagram is just deleting sh*t for Taylor Swift but don’t do nothing when racists harass pl and say the nword’ (sic),’ one user wrote. Another wrote: ‘Tbh I was there to see some snake emojis.’
According to the publication, Instagram revealed it’s unveiling a new tool to help high profile accounts manage negative comments. An Instagram spokesperson did not confirm this but told MailOnline: ‘We’re always looking for better ways to help people prevent spammy or inappropriate comments on Instagram.’
The fact that Taylor got this tool when so many women – women who have been legitimately harassed and stalked and threatened – have not is a f—king joke. I mean, of course Taylor wants to delete the critical comments and the snake emojis. Of course she wants to carefully curate the comments on her Instagram. But why is she allowed to and no other individual is allowed to? And why do businesses get access to this feature by Joe/Jane Public does not?
What else? Page Six had a really obvious story this weekend about how Taylor has pissed off a lot of people over the years and her good-girl reputation has taken a beating in the past few weeks. A Hollywood insider said: “There’s this misconception that Taylor’s a sweetheart, but she’s quite calculated.” Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, PCN, screencaps from Taylor’s Instagram.
this whole thing is really a lot about race. where are those tools for WoC for racist and sexist abuse?
of course a white woman would get to use it to block silly trolling of someone famous. woah im really disgusted.
also let me guess this tool will mostly be used by politicans and big companies to bury critical messages.
oh come on.
No, Maria is right. That actress from Ghost Busters received so much racist hatred on her Twitter account yet it took forever for them to do anything.
I know Twitter and Instagram are different but what Taylor received was not harassment or racist or sexist. She still wants the narrative out there that everyone loves her and that she has no flaws. Social media needs to get their act together.
What Alleycat said.
Swift is using this tool to control the narrative and to silence anything that might call her brand into question. It is entirely about privilege and money. She is not being “harassed.” You want to see harassment? Look up Leslie Jones. Look up GamerGate.
I feel like I am living in Turkey again.
Maria is 100% right.
Maria IS right.
@paolanqar if you can’t take the heat get out of the f//king sauna.
This whole thing is about money as much as anything. Instagram doesn’t want to lose TS, she is good for business. If Kylie Jenner requests this service, I am sure they will give it to her, too.
Maria is absolutely 100% percent correct. WOC face rape threats, death threats, and the most vile racial/sexist epithets that could possibly come to mind.
They face this avalanche of nastiness EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. and where have these companies been to assist them? The Internet is not an optional space – people need it both professional and personal reasons and these companies would rather see WOC leave than assist them.
I think you all are really over reaching on this.
It bothers me that Instagram isn’t making this available to all – with no charge to use it.
they should offer that AND charge! that would be great business for all the social-media companies and the user can decide whether they need it or not. i think i remember especially twitter and facebook always pull the “we don’t have enough resources for that”- card when they are criticized for not deleting offensive content/ comments. ha, maybe taylor can even get an endorsement out of the whole thing. “do it like swifty: curate all the snakes away for 1,99$/month”
IG Is a social media platform, not a public utility. Their obligations are to their shareholders and advertisers. If Twitter and IG are cracking down on hate speech, it is not because users want it. Celebrities are freeing marketing and drive traffic. No way IG is going to let TS walk.
@Maria: why don’t you contact Instagram to tell them that they should make this available for all users that are harassed?
I really hope that in this case sth good will come out of sth bad – meaning that TS will pave the way for everyone to better manage spamming / inappropiate comments (be it on FB, Insta or whatever).
@ Elisa the I.
First, I roll my eyes at the “pave the way comment” because she didn’t pave the way for anyone sensible this tool was already being used. As others have pointed Taylor is a brand is like a business so this tool is still being used in the way it was intended to.
Secondly, as other the fact that Instagram created this tool for business (celebrity brands like Taylor) Instead of being created for people who receive racist comments, homophobic comments, sexist comments, death threats, slut shaming.
Instagram is trying to become like Yelp, where business owners can delete negative comments and give a false positive image.
@Ican’t Yes she’s a brand, but the public don’t really view her as such. Now we all know that the tool IG provides businesses can also work for an individual too. If they continue to ignore little girls being slut-shamed or teenage boys being threatened with a lynch mob, only to take action against snake emojis…
Can you imagine the level of public condemnation they will face? So while I shake my head at it being Taylor Swift, this PR move by IG may end up being for the greater good.
I completely agree with your sentiment. Digital spaces were initially idealised as a democratising tool but we have increasingly seen that the social inequalities that exist in the real world around race gender and class are simply replicated online. This is a perfect example! And what, so now when the masses want to take to social media to review a crappy product or service those comments can be wiped out by big business?
Agreed. So sick of the white uprising comments and how i should die.
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone here wishing death upon white people. All I see is white people complaining when we discuss racial issues, because hey, that’s too much to ask!
I feel like that is a slightly over dramatic response to the actual reality of white privileges and the fact that we as a country are finally trying to address them.
Last week some people were repeatedly calling people on here who criticized Kanye white supremacists. It’s ridiculous.
@Crowdhood: Right? If pointing out that certain people benefit from a skewed system is equivalent to a death threat for this poster, they’re sure lucky they’re not a minority. You can’t just decide to ignore that skewed system unless you are white, after all.
Did any of you take a moment to think that Kimbers maybe talking about somthing that has happed to them on Instagram.????
He/She never said it happed on this site.
Show me even one instance in which anyone has said that white people should die or go away. Why is being aware of privilege, acknowledging how racism impacts others, listening to others, and treating their lives as something that matters so bloody difficult? #whitefragility
I think this comment is sarcasm. I mean, really.
Where was this tool for people like Leslie Jones? But oh, no, let’s protect Taylor Swift from seeing snake emojis. Applause.
Leslie Johns happened on Twitter not Instagram. Different companies. And for the record Leslie has met with the CEO of Twitter and they blocked/took away a lot of people’s accounts.
She unlike Taylor did point out that they need to work on monitoring it from happening to anyone and he agreed and claims they are working on something. Little late, who knows if it’s true but hey.
@K: Hence, why I said people LIKE Leslie Jones, as I can read and understood that it was a different platform. There are so many WoC on social media, Instagram and Twitter included, who struggle with this kind of thing, and they can whip out a way to stop it, but it only gets used by Taylor Swift…
@Farrahh there are so many white women who get threatened with rape etc, I mean look up the gaming thing. It shouldn’t happen to anyone.
My lord I have been attacked for defending my belief in diversity, having issue with Trump and racism and lord liking an Old Navy ad. I am not a person of color.
I think Taylor benefits a lot from white privilage and I think she actively plays on it, but I think in this case she got this because of how big she is on instagram.
But that isn’t Taylor’s fault. I mentioned this on a post yesterday – this situation has made visible how celebrity works. Taylor’s social media is much more visible than Leslie’s, so there is a quicker reaction. There hasn’t been a tool for teenagers getting bullied and harassed, but there should be.
I hope this situation pushes these platforms to also develop tools to minimize negativity. A forum is a great place to vent – I think all owners of social media should be able to manage their image as they see fit. I wouldn’t want a bunch of people jumping on my professional page and posting their reactions to a professional (or lack thereof) on my media. They are welcome to do it elsewhere there (like Ratemyteacher or something. That doesn’t bother me and I am aware of it, so I hold myself accountable because I know there is a potential for public conversation).
I believe this is about money as much as it is about race. TS wouldn’t get the app if she was poor, IMO.
I think it’s much more about $$$ and power, rather than color of skin.
It can be both. Taylor has the money and power to to “ask” Instagram for it, and of course Instagram is going to give it to her and respond faster to her problems then say someone like Rachel Roy who received the same thing Taylor got (lemons), had her her own daughter get harassed, but Insta stayed silent. Not to mention the numerous racists/trolls that purposely harass pages that feature minorities who’ve been asking for a feature like this for quite some time.
It is about money. Taylor Swift isn’t the only white celebrity getting nasty comments.
I would imagine that if Beyonce (is she on instagram?) asked for this tool they’d give it to her too. If it’s about race then it’s because we have few black women in such a position as Taylor, who is basically the living embodiment of instagram with her carefully staged, filtered, and curated posts. Not to mention all her money, connections, and star power. She’s a very high profile user, and they’re going to cater to her because of that.
Why isn’t this available to everyone? Did TS pay a lot for it? I can’t speak to it being racial or not, but, honestly, snake emojis vs racial slurs & threats? Again, I’m not a fan of censorship, but, you should be able to block whatever/whoever you want on your own account–ESPECIALLY threats. I think it’s strictly about $$$, though.
People Taylor is getting this also because she has the biggest or one of the biggest insta accounts. They aren’t going to piss her off. It’s about money and follows.
I said this last week on the Leslie story where Taylor got twitter to delete the negative topics about her but leslie had to call out twitter to get them to do anything. Snake emojis are nothing. Racist abuse is and all social media companies are terrible at dealing with it
Seriously, and even the response to it is so different.
Leslie Jones racist tweets directed at her mocking her, telling her to die, and go back to Africa in a cage with a banana (tweets I myself have seen MONTHS ago) have been happening for close to a year, possibly even more since I can only vouch for when and what I saw and Twitter KNEW it was a problem and did nothing until the outrage and backlash.
Meanwhile on both social media they’re working on deleting negative comments, comments along the lines of, “How does it feel knowing everyone sees through your phony ass now?” For Taylor like the President himself assigned them with the task.
It’s really disheartening how little black women and women who don’t fit the stereotype of the perfect American princess are discarded or ignored, but silly sh*t like snake emojis is given top priority and personally deleted by staff.
Yes but also about money. Taylor has continually shilled out major major money for image protection. I can’t imagine any company turning that down, however unfair. Just another example of how she has always controlled what we do and do not see about her. She’s making herself look worse and worse.
Tay-Tay is too sensitive. Nothing like an overload of passive aggressiveness to add to a narcissistic histrionic personality disorder.
I think its hilarious how her fanbase which tends to be more on the conservative political spectrum will bend their “free speech even on private spaces” ideal to indulge her narcissism. Like those DM comments. The same crowd that is constantly complaining that the world is too PC, how the women gamers who were getting rape threats need to toughen up and how minorities should accept racial slurs as “just words, is completely defending this. Snake emojis > death threats if the target is their precious little baby Taylor.
The backlash is much bigger than the feud with Kanye. It’s the result of five albums and eight years worth of backbiting and self-victimization.
@Naya – I’m giving you ALL THE APPLAUSE right now.
This.
Folks, this IG update confirms we really, Really, REALLY need to swap out Tay Tay & replace it with Tink Tink
Poor lil’ Tink Tink. Them haters do not have your back. Them haters do not play fair. You gotta be In Tune with your star f’n player to pull this off.
Think about that when you havin’ a bad day
I understand why she did it. She and her friends were getting death threats. Over a Kim K reveal. Ridiculous. Of course it’s not fair to other women who don’t have this option, but nobody said life was fair. I’m quite certain such a device will be made available to everyone….hope so anyway. Or in the alternative, if things are so overwhelming, stay off of social media.
Right? I don’t get why some people bit** and whine about social media – if you can’t deal with it, then stay off it!
yeah and dont wear a skirt around strange men!!!!!!!
There are a lot of jobs where you are encouraged or even required to have a social media presence. Not everyone can just avoid it.
Social media is a valid tool. Avoiding it all together because some people don’t have manners or morals is about as sane and logical as avoiding going out alone as a woman to avoid getting attacked.
Renee and Kate: True. But in Swift’s case and other celebs, they use social media as a diary of sorts or to make a statement like Swift did in response to Kardashian. Getting death threats is a whole different animal than not having manners. Just like they complain about losing their privacy because of celebrity, they may also lose the right to post their lives online if they don’t want the crazies on board. Their choice
Well, if it’s just about her trying to keep people from doing the snake emojis and silly, harmless things like that, then that’s her being oversensitive. But as far as the other crappy behavior that goes on with social media- it’s a problem that a lot of people’s knee-jerk response to conversations about harassment, threats, racism, sexism, bigotry, etc. on social media is basically to imply that people most likely to get these kinds of comments should just be private and stay off instagram or twitter. It takes the focus off of who’s actually in the wrong.
Or maybe we find a way to fix the problem and not just let the people who do use racism, sexism, and death threats have their own territory to lash out against people?
Swatting is real because people don’t take bullying and harassment done on social media seriously.
She’s got insider connections with Instagram through Karlie Kloss’s boyfriend, or something like that. Lainey explained it the other day. However, instead of being mad that TS gets to use this service shouldn’t we be saying good for her and now let’s give everyone else that right?
+ 1
Agreed!
you are making way too much sense for a TS thread. 🙂
Right? She’s making way too much sense.
I worked for a family with their newborn baby, a high profile family, and their baby’s name was already taken, by a seemingly inactive user. Since she was friends with the guys who started Insta, she was able to effectively take the handle for the baby through her connection. It’s not that hard when you are well connected.
If half the people that complained about TS getting this tool would actually start addressing the creators of these sites, there might be more change. Sitting and complaining on comment boards on other sites isn’t going to do anything to make progress.
Pulling Leslie’s situation into this isn’t perfectly comparable either – it’s a whole different company. And at the end of the day, Leslie only got as far as she did because she’s famous. If you or I had gotten attacked has harshly as she did, we wouldn’t be getting the kind of change she is. Instead of complaining about celebrity privilege we should be taking these opportunities to try to piggy back off the steam they’re getting in the media to try to get these tools available for anyone and everyone.
Hear! Hear!
This is not the first time that people have been complaining about this. People have been claiming about harassment and death threats on social media for years. From racist bs that FKA Twigs gets from racist trash Robsten fans on Instagram to the Beyhive going after anyone who has every said something negative about Beyonce or the racist trolls on Twitter and the Daesh. There have been complaints.. and little to nothing happens. The moment Taylor gets a little shook, a feature suddenly appears that she has access to remove snakes. How convenient. How is it that she has access to this but the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITES STATES (or more accurately, the people running those pages at the White House) does not have access to “test” the feature out as well. Go to any of the White Houses social media pages and it is full of garbage people saying the most vile things. Taylor is not even getting .00000001 of what others have gotten.
I always find it remarkable how people can completely miss the point on some things and get it on other things.
Aiobhan — I think when it comes to government types, it’s a slippery slope. Free speech isn’t what a lot of people claim it to be- but I think companies try to be extra careful when it comes to government entities. Because I mean, true free speech is the right to express opinions without government interference. So in that case – I can see it not just being the owners of the SM company, but the government entity being cautious in regards to that.
With the other examples of racism, and harassment, and threats – there does need to be a hell of a lot done. That being said – complaints need to come in for them to find them. And for them to get REAL attention a ton of complaints need to show up for it to become an obvious issue. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment at all – but because celebrity SM accounts tend to have SO many followers, there WILL be a lot more reporting of bad posts compared to a regular person’s account. I can’t imagine how many reports they have to trudge through on a daily basis – and then you have people abusing the situation and reporting things that they disagree with rather than what goes against terms of service.
I also don’t think for a second that they magically whipped up a new tool just for Taylor. It takes a LONG time to develop that kind of thing – and longer to test and implement. I think it’s fair to say it was something that had been in the works for a long time – months, to a year or more – that they ended up giving to her to use. It also was probably in THEIR best interest to do so – because the amount of spam her account was getting would be putting stress on their servers that was outside of the norm. So this would be a good test environment for the feature, regardless of the publics opinion on her being worthy of it or not.
Does Taylor deserve it more than other people? No. But she also doesn’t deserve to be harassed any more than anyone else either. Just because we might not deem her harassment to be ‘as bad’ as what others get – doesn’t mean she should have to deal with it anymore than anyone else. Just because you or I might not think the emojis are bad enough to warrant action – it’s still not right. Yeah, it’s just an icon/photo but it’s still piling on and it is harassing. It’s not the same as someone getting racial slurs in it’s intensity – but it’s still an issue.
I don’t think it’s missing the point to use these situations as a good jump off point to bring more attention to this issue as a whole. This is the time – where they’re actively implementing features for SOME people – that would be prime to start petitions, or trending hashtags to get the ball rolling to protect the rest of the people getting harassed. Use the steam that this has built up to get more change to happen.
There is a difference between having a difference of opinion on TPP and how to cut taxes, and other political issues and calling someone the n word, and throwing out rape and death threats on social media. This is not even remotely an opinion and should not be treated as such. It is vile hate speech that should not be excused, explained/dismissed,or condoned and should be removed from the page. They can post the garbage on their own pages, but to post it on someone else’s page is different. They are a private company who wants to attract more users for more money. I know a lot of people who don’t go on social media because they are legitimately afraid of racists and sexist trash people.
It is almost as if you missed what I posted. People do report these things and nothing or little to nothing is done about it because whatever is being posted does not conflict with their user agreement. That is until things get too big for them to ignore. You are also making conflicting statements: You said people need to report things (as if no one is really reporting anything at all) and then you are saying that people are reporting things,but there are so many reports to go through that they cannot handle all the data that is coming in and what is real and what is not. So what is the truth?
The point of that comment is to show how skewed the whole situation is towards Taylor and not the speed to which the “testing” came about. This is preferential treatment at its core and is part of the whole issue that I have with this entire situation from the beginning. It is not ok that Taylor gets access to these sorts of features faster than someone living in the middle of NJ who is being bullied by classmates or a rapist’s family going after the victim for pressing charges. I don’t care if she has 17 million followers or 17. She is using a public forum then she should be treated just like everyone else. No conditional statements or buts are acceptable. This is not ok full stop.
There is nothing disturbing or threatening to Taylor’s well-being. She is being shamed for being a liar, which a lot of people are in this world, but she is getting better treatment from the public than the people she mocked for the last decade. She is not getting it worse than Amber Rose, or Gaby Sidebe, or the white women who were a part of gamer gate. Emojis are being posted to her page are not even in the same league as being called a whore or a nigger. Her harassment and the others I have mentioned are not the same and should not be treated in the same way. Her bullying has gone on for way too long and has taken on a life of its own because of how popular those songs were. The lengths people are going to defend a 26-year-old is bully is beyond comprehension. Darth Susan indeed.
This sort of side stepping and deflecting is part of the problem that I have with this situation as a whole. Taylor is not responsible because she did not know she was being recorded (or making her being recorded the bigger issue than her being a lying liar who lies a lot). Taylor did not know about the bitch line even though she said she was fine with everything and gave him creative license to do as he pleased with her blessing. I am still on team Taylor because Kimye suck ass ( or a more polite version of that statement. One excuse after another and more spin to keep her narrative alive even though it is as dead as the piece of fish on sushi. She is responsible for the lie and the fall out that is currently happening. Instead of accepting that she is fallible and owning up to her mistakes, she is trying to wash it away and rewrite it as if it did not happen. A people keep letting her get away with it.
Agreed!
Take that logic elsewhere! How dare they test this out with an obvious current case!!
@Clair
Lol they we’re not testing it out. if you read the article it it says that this product was already been used for businesses.
It could have been used when is Beyonce’s huge fan club flooded Rachel Roy Instagram with bees, death threats and more to the point where her Instagram was temporarily taken down.
….it’s still rather telling that instagram gave this to her pronto while POC celebs have been getting racist abuse for YEARS and the company gave no fucks.
(see: FKA Twigs. And several Korean pop stars, too – those guys get death threats and instagram won’t stir their assessment but let poor TayTay get some snake emojis and suddenly she’s the poster child for anti-bullying?)
Not only that but she’s a very high profile user with tons and tons of followers. She brings in big business (data) for them so of course they’re going to want to keep her happy. Social media companies teeter on the edge of relevancy; the last thing they want to do is motivate their big users to find the next new platform that will give them what they want and take their millions of followers with them.
Exactly, I don’t understand how people don’t see this as harassment or understand why she did it. There are hundreds of people flooding her Instagram calling her a snake. We would consider it harassment if they were calling her a b!tch or a wh0re, so why not a snake. Of course regular people get harassed and that needs to be dealt with as well, but it happens on a much larger scale with celebrities. And if she has the power to make a call and say “X is bothering me” and get it dealt with, then why not? Any of us would.
And yes, I felt the same way when people were complaining about essentially the same thing on the Leslie Jones article.
@Princessme, oh come on, as much as we like to ignore the history of those two words, they are misogynistic slurs. You can’t compare it with being called a snake. “Snake” as far I know is synonymous with “shady”, “dishonest” etc. People are basically calling her a big fat liar after she, ya know, told a big fat lie.
@ PRINCESSME
Please do not compare being called a b*tch wh*re to Taylor being called a liar IE the snake emoji become she LIED. Those two things wouldn’t be any further.
In a world of Instagram harassment death, racist comments, sexist comments, homophobic and more
All those stupid and immature for people to do a snake emoji or bee Emoji is a first world problem.
Meh, you see it differently than I do. Have you ever called anyone a bitch for being an asshole? I’m sure I have (definitely not to their face, but I have). But when a whole bunch of people swarm down on you calling you *insert whatever term you consider similar to snake* I consider it bullying. You don’t have to, but in my opinion it is. I consider snake to mean more than “shady” but that’s just semantics.
I would never tell my kids it’s okay to bully a bully because they did it first because then you’re no better than the person you claim harmed you. But that’s just my opinion on the matter.
No. we should not be saying “good for her” because she is not being bullied. She is being called out for being a bully and liar. If you want to label it as anything, she is getting embarrassed on a colossal scale. Of all the people on Instagram who should be able to “test” this feature out, it should not be the mean girl getting her comeuppance to avoid dealing with the mess she created. It should be the 13 year kid who is being bullied by other 13 kids. It should be anyone else other than special snowflake Taylor not so Swift anymore. Rachel Ray, Rachel Roy, etc are others who deserve special treat over Taylor. When the new feature has been perfected and launched, then she should be able to partake in the feature like the general public.
There is a huge different between calling someone out for their actions and bullying them. Some of the comments on her Instagram account crossed the line from criticizing her to bullying her. It is never okay to harass or bully anyone.. Her friends that rose to her defense received death threats, is that okay?
No harassment is not ok. So why defend Taylor who has been harassing and degrading others for a good portion of her career.
I got a better question for you: Why is she able to delete the comments on her page and her friends cannot.? What makes her so special that she gets this option but her bff and her other enablers do not? Is it ok that one of her friends mentioned Kimye’s child in one her posts or that Joseph Kahn also said some vile nonsense to defend her? Is it ok that Kimye or anyone else receive death threats? We can go at this all day.
If Taylor is a victim, then so are the people she went after. And if you do not view those people as victims then Taylor should not be viewed one as either.
Thank God I don’t bother with Instagram and Twitter, full of thinned skinned snowflakes and/or bullying nutters.
Just like being at work actually.
So Taylor gets this, but Leslie Jones had to actually @Twitter to make them do something about the racist tweets hurled at her daily????
Leslie didn’t just @ them she had to MEET with them in person, didn’t she? Meanwhile Taylor probably just got an email with instructions within a few hours of the snake emoji meme like “here you go!”
Leslie Jones had to retweet the comments and have people (regular and celebrity) coming to her defense and calling Twitter out before they met with her then did something. It’s ridiculous.
And it’s not like this is the first time a celebrity has felt the need to leave Twitter over the very same reason. Not to mention the fact ISIS uses them as a marketing tool! Twitter is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slow.
Twitter and instagram are run by different people. Obviously instagram handles harassment different from twitter.
How many times does it need to be said that they are two different companies, two different owners, two different platforms, two different sets of processes, two different sets of dynamics??
Both of which had the exact same response to Taylor Swift’s drama.
They both started deleting negative comments, deleting comments with snake emojis and in some cases banning people all within the course of a couple hours.
A better example then would be FKA Twigs who got death threats, race comment, telling her she should die and so on, Instagram and she still gets those comments to this day.
@Side Eye That’s not true. Only instagram deleted negative comments and comments with snake emojis twitter didn’t do that.
@Flowerchild Did Fka Twigs report the threats? They can’t do anything if she didn’t report it.
I do remember reading that she did and she has also talked a lot about it in interviews.
Twitter and Insta are different companies!
Think of them like McDonalds and Burger King, you don’t fault McDonald’s when Burger King doesn’t solve their ecoli problem fast enough. They have nothing to do with each other.
Don’t expect that pointing that out will change anything here. The fact that these are completely different companies with completely different leaders gets in the way of the narrative.
God I did not think it was possible to hate her more. WOC get called such horrible things.. hell even Kim K gets called so much worse and she gets this over some snake emojis.
This tool should be for everyone not just Taylor and not just women. People of both genders get harassed, so it shouldn’t be just for a special few. This should be especially available to kids who are bullied on their SM. Hopefully everyone will get a chance to protect themselves from trolls and aggressive people on SM. But if it’s just given to special snowflake Swift then I hope the media calls social media and Swift out for it.
Uh where was this tool when my friend was being harassed by Gamer Gaters for drawing a female version of a character they like? Where was this tool every single time a woman or a POC has been attacked on IG in the past however long IG has existed?
Eat shit, Taylor. 🐍🐍🐍
Maybe try directing your anger at the head of these companies who actually have control over who gets this tool instead of telling TS “eat shit”.
I’m directing my anger at both IG and the thin skinned control freak entity known as Taylor Swift. It can be both things!
Taylor actually has a say in it as well since she has a direct line to the CEOs and could be the “voice of the little girl and guy”. She puts whole performances trying to champion those people and overcoming the bully and yet could not have said something sooner and pushed them on it.
This emoji can be consider as negative is not even abuse comments like the one Leslie Jones received & everyone on social media got negative comments from time to time is not big deal, & Taylor S doesn’t even want too receive negative comments about her, she wants positive comments when everyone worship her
I understand that public figures get thousands of posts that are aggressive, but cherry picking comments is a slippery slope, for businesses, when some negative ones are justified.
It’s a slippery slope for celebrities, and regular people too (if it ever trickles down). I can totally see huge echo chambers being created on those Insta model and hate group pages, which is never a good thing. Unless Insta has a feature where they can properly vet the nature of the comment, I think it’ll just be a repeat of what Swift is doing with them on a corporate/public scale.
Excellent comment:)
Yeah, I agree. Maybe instead of filtering comments users should have the option of not allowing for comments at all.
I agree. This is not good. Taylor gets this to protect her brand, not because she was “harassed”. Not agreeing with you is not harassing. And this tool will most likely be used by other brands to delete fair product reviews that the company does not want the public to know about.
which makes sense because Instagram is a platform for a brand. We all selectively choose what to put on our social media to brand ourselves.
I think it’s dangerous for businesses, they could miss valid complaints. I get wanting to filter out the weight loss spams, the racist comments and the sexist comments but all negative seems like a bad idea.
With celebrities I can kind of understand the negative thing some people like to be mean so yeah I wouldn’t want to see the wow you dont look cute in that dress comment. It might be true but there’s no reason to post it. But doesn’t mean it needs to be filtered either.
I’m no celeb, but I dealt with a nasty commenter on Instagram, who would not stop harassing me, and the company dealt with it very quickly and efficiently. It was shocking how quickly, actually. The person kept making new accounts and they would always shut them down.
That is nice to hear.
Sorry to hear about that! Did it happen this year?
So Insta does have tools in place for everyone, not just for celebs. What I find interesting is the big number of comments on here saying that people get harrassed and Insta is not doing anything about it?
Of course she did. Because she can’t handle criticism. She’s getting called out for being a liar who plays the victim every time she gets some push back for her actions.
Tiddles is obviously sponsored by Nike.
The whole corporate aspect of this feud is interesting. Back when the Leslie Jones incident happened NPR did a story on the preferential treatment celebtities receive. They cited that Kelly Osbourne doxxed her dad’s mistress with zero consequences. There’s also the fact that KK is starting a new partnership with SnapChat.
This just makes Taylor look a bigger pain in the ass- take your licks and put your big girl pants on, honey. Just because you can’t see the comments doesn’t make you most-loved Suzie Cupcake again. 🙄
OMG that is the best comment ever. On the other hand, whenever I see Missy, Paula Abdul’s song “cold hearted snake” runs through my head. Hahah.
After years of passive aggressiveness against other celebrities (plus a weak throw toward Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, which they lobbed back), Missy is finally getting a taste of her own medicine. It’s not fun to be on the other side is it?
Hopefully they make this available to FKA Twigs and Leslie Jones who get hundreds of racist comments a day on their social media accounts!
But they won’t. Can’t let the snake know she’s a snake. It is literally impossible to like her.
Yes I mentioned Twigs in an above comment why hasn’t this been made to people like her who has had years of this type of abuse on Instagram.
As for Leslie Jones what happened to her happed on Twitter not Instagram.
This whole mess is not over by any means. I am waiting for Kim and Kompany to add more fuel to this Taytanic bonfire
Hey everyone, guess what. The Internet is not a nice place!! No matter who you are.
I stopped reading the comments on The White House’s Instagram account months ago because I got tired of having to wade through all the racist garbage and insults directed at the freaking President of the United States. But it’s nice to know that Taylor will be protected from seeing any snake emojis in her comments. I’ll sleep better at night knowing her precious feelings aren’t being hurt.
Oh but white privilege doesn’t exist, right?
Nah. It’s a collective hallucination.
Well, she is certainly committed to going down the forever victim ship. Poor, precious snowflake. At least she’s got material for her next two or three albums.
No, but seriously, Taylor-get some help for that narcissistic disorder. I really hope she never has kids, because she is a tragic Munchhausen by Proxy disaster just waiting to happen.
Okay, so she gets this immediately but women being tweeted racist, hateful, graphic videos and all manners of horrific material don’t.
But those snake emojis and mocking comments guys, that’s where the real harassment is.
But don’t ever let anyone tell you white Privelage or fitting the image of the ideal American woman isn’t helping Taylor against normal criticism and normal struggle.
WORD UP.
Instagram has a tool to end online harassment and bullying and they’re restricting it to the biggest Mean Girl bully of all?
Nice.
Never say the (social) media can’t be bought.
Yes the mean-girl is being protected and enabled. And her mean-girl fans who were attacking even Michael J Fox and his charity for joking about not wanting his son to date her for fear of her revenge songs are applauding. If there was ever any doubt that Swifty had massive power in the industry here is your proof. No wonder others were afraid to call her out.
She won’t have power if people stopped buying her drivel. Just waiting for her tween fans to grow up and form an opinion.
My tween niece would rather pull out her eyelashes one by one than listen to a Taylor Swift song (her words), and according to her, all her friends agree.
She does love Demi Lovato, though. Her father was going to take her and three friends to a Demi Lovato concert for her birthday, but had a surprise deployment, so my husband took them instead. He said he really identified with the pictures of Tom and Taylor at that concert, because he knows what it is like to be the awkward dad at a concert with children.
I sounds like she got this because she is a business, not because she is a woman being “harassed.” I don’t really think businesses should be able to block negative comments either. As someone using a business, I’d like to be able to read those negative comments, you know?
I see your point isn’t like Yelp business deleting negative reviews or making fake positive ones.
It’s about celebrity. People get harassed, threatened and bullied daily on social media platforms, whether they are PoC, white, Asian, gay, trans, etc. Taylor and Leslie got attention because they are celebrities, drew huge attention and asked for the assistance. Hopefully, someday, these platforms will have the tools for all, not just famous people.
This makes me so angry. So because people took the higher road and rather then ream out Taylor and swear at her and call her names, they posted snake emojis. Genius! But taylor and her mom cant take a joke. And of course team swift (including her awful PR team) want their paychecks and basically got instagram to remove every single negative comment… we knoe negative cokments are there. Only a small percentage of peole would still support someone like this. I hope her career plummets.
This type of tool is LONG overdue. The social platforms have long struggled with how to balance the principles of the open web and free lines of communication with protecting privacy and guarding against abuse, bigotry and straight-up terrorism.
With Taylor’s massive following on Instagram, she is basically the perfect use case for testing out this tool at scale. I do really hope Instagram follows up with a universal policy that can help everyone.
No, Taylor’s life isn’t being ruined by this, but many normal people’s lives have been upended once they’ve been singled out by the Internet lynch mob. You’d better believe that had all those snake emojis coupled with multiple death threats (and yes, there were death threats and absolutely disgusting pornographic snake gifs/videos being posted) had been pointed at the average person, they’d be absolutely terrified. Taylor obviously has the resources to deal with this, but not everyone has a dedicated security team.
And major eyeroll at everyone who is criticizing Taylor for white privilege when Twitter wouldn’t do the same for Leslie Jones. As others have pointed out, Twitter and Instagram are different companies. They are, in fact, competitors. And Leslie Jones DID actually get preferential treatment from Twitter. She is the first celebrity that I can think of who actually influenced Twitter to do anything about the abuse people receive, and she’s a black woman in her late 40s, not a thin, blonde pop star. Good for Leslie for making it a point to call out all the racist trolls and making a big stink about quitting Twitter (if just for a day, lol).
She doesn’t seem to understand on some basic level that demanding (and getting) preferential treatment just makes the public dislike her more. Instead she seems to think that if she wipes out all the evidence of her failures (snake emojis, murals, etc), and shoves her great love affair down our throats, we will think she’s a princess again.
Wonder if she’ll soon have to censor “SPECIAL❄=/=😇” .
Tom should start working on a few censorships of his own everytime he speaks or pap walks – “☠” “🚾” “🔙🔚” “♟” “💣” “🗑” for example.
I just have a question for all the people saying this isn’t a big deal…if it was you, or your child, or someone else that matters to you instead of Taylor swift would it be harassing then? I had something like this happen to me (before social media) my locker was full of notes each day calling me names and special little notes wee left in my desk and quite honestly I would have rather killed myself than gone back to school each day but my mom told me it’s just kids being kids. Maybe it is just emojis and not hate speech but who are you to tell her it shouldn’t hurt?
Exactly. Quite a few people on this site think it’s okay to bully and harass Taylor Swift and her friends because of what happened over Kanye’s song Famous. If it happens to someone you dislike, it’s okay and not considered bullying. When it happens to someone you like, it’s bullying.
Like I repeatedly say, there is a huge difference with criticizing someone and bullying them.
Whilst in no way minimising your experience, for which I feel sorry, I’m going to assume you were not in any way an instigator of the criticism you suffered. You had done nothing to warrant any ‘backlash’ against you; or, had you any initial culpability, you would have had the character to admit to an initial dishonesty and subsequently apologise and make amends.
Taylor Swift very publicly lied and used her platform of multi multi millions of fans/followers to propagate her lies to the detriment of others. She has now been proven as a liar and manipulator and many are expressing their acknowledgement of her as such in a fairly anodyne fashion with the snake. Relative to other ways they could show their disapproval of her actions, the snake is mild.
With rights come responsibility. With seeking this special treatment she appears to be all about her ‘rights’ and negating or censoring out any need for some solid self-reflection leading to taking some responsibility.
Also, she is a grown woman well beyond the age of majority; added to which, one not above regularly putting bullying notes in the lockers of others set to the bars of a rhyme.
@ Milo
Did you publicly lie multiple times and throw somebody under the bus to make yourself look better and so you can play the victim????????
People are not bullying her by calling her out on her sh*t which is what people were doing with the snake emoji is it stupid yes, immature yes, bullying??? NO
To your question if it was somebody I know. If they did what Taylor did by lying throw somebody else under the bus thenot I still think it’s not bullying by posting stupid emoji. I would tell them to get off Instagram for a while.
I was in sixth grade and I told somebody who a popular girl had a crush on….I’m pretty sure I admitted to that wrongdoing since I was caught dead to rights, but from sixth to twelfth grade I was taunted and lied about constantly, even after I switched schools. Is she quite probably a shitty person, yeah I believe that. But who are we to say someone deserves it? I guess it just bothers me that people seem so excited to jump her because that kind of thought pattern makes me afraid for the future of our society. And I work in a high school now so I see how destroyed kids are over stuff like this, and yeah she’s an adult but has she been able to mentally grow since becoming famous at what, 16?
Yes, Milo. Who are we to say that she deserves it? I couldn’t agree more.
@Marny – well perhaps the victims of her manipulative ‘victim’ status only have the purest true right to determine that she deserves the dragging – but, for the most part, until now, they’ve been denied through her many legal or bullying contrivances the right to take her to task for her deceptive actions towards them. Now they have finally been given access to a voice through KK producing receipts, it just so happens many other voices have chosen to join them in their disapprobation… much like the many voices, times past, which joined Taylor in tearing people down (on social media accounts much included) based on Taylor’s patently false/contrived versions of events.
Just desserts, and take your lumps. Or do ‘role models’ get a pass from being responsible for actions of their own choice and doing because … ?
@ Milo
Telling someone who the popular girl likes is completely different from Taylor lying and and throwing someone under the bus to make herself look good.
Let’s not make the excuse stuff like this, hasn’t she been able to mentally grow 16. That right their is an excuse for her behavior, which there is none.
@Dippit, I don’t feel anyone deserves “just desserts”. Two wrongs don’t make a right and publicly shaming someone typically doesn’t do any good to anyone except the small petty people that feel the need to get revenge.
@Ican’t, I’m not excusing her behavior at all, my point was that she’s probably very much still a teenager mentally so the snake emojis are probably just as hurtful to her as they would be to the high schoolers that I work with. Like oh no, social media hates me, my life is over.
I personally don’t care what she has or hasn’t done, or what Kim and Kanye have or haven’t done. I have no side and no dog in this fight except it’s disgusting to me that grown adults find it enjoyable to take shots at someone for something that has not a damn thing to do with them and then stand on the podium of she’s mean she deserves it.
@Milo – so a free pass accorded Taylor Swift for knowingly lying then? She publicly put out her misrepresentation of events in the sure and certain knowledge that it could/*DID* do damage to another’s reputation, yet, when publicly proven to have based all that destruction of another on her own lies (aided and abetted by her legion of fans on social media), all must be censored against criticism of such manipulative methods and made hushed… because, why?
And how long in the tooth does she have to get before she doesn’t get an arrested development because of her early fame bye… because it seems she’s very shrewdly used that ‘image’ with a sophistication beyond her years, if not an actual real life responsibility/maturity?
@Dippit Le sigh…retaliation against anyone, is petty and small minded. Inundating anyone’s social media with hurtful words or symbols is petty and small minded. Being excited about someone’s downfall is petty, small minded, and a little bit sick.
And if you read, I said I was not giving her an excuse for her behavior, I was saying she probably overreacted to the emojis as a teenager would, as opposed to an adult. Not that she has a reason to act as she does.
But sure Taylor swift deserves a pass and to be protected because that’s exactly what I have not said thus far and it’s all you seem to be getting from my non support of Taylor swift, disgust at people who think retaliation and public shaming is ok message.
@Milo, do you believe she has wrought upon herself expressions of disapprobation (regardless of how childish the snake may appear as a shorthand for such)?
To date she, and her machine, have been able to diminish/disable such disapprobation of her behaviour through legal stifling or by mob tactics against her chosen targets. Those chosen by her for disapproval have suffered it aplenty by her course of reckoning, yet as soon as she is revealed to have promoted much of that through means foul, she hides behind a censorship.
Why does she get a pass for reaping similar to that which she has sown for many others past-times? This is clearly the type of vocalising and giving expression to ‘her victimhood’ she’s encouraged and understood in the past; why do different rules apply when roles are reversed… the response to her has been in language she understands and has much used against many others herself or by proxy.
I think anyone who isn’t involved in the situation needs to not become involved in it since it has nothing to do with them. Does Kanye and all the other people she mean girled have the right to call her on it? Yeah sure, but calling someone on their shit and calling them names, or crowing over downfall is not being called on their shit. And the people that arent involved and are involving themselves just to drag her are, in my opinion, disgusting and sad. My whole argument really has nothing to do with Taylor swift specifically, it’s just a current example of how people love to jump someone when they smell blood. It’s gross.
@Milo, well I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that when all of Swift’s fans were piling in on all her various dog-whistled or more overt victims you were posting similar against them and Swift for encouraging it.
I wasn’t. It wasn’t until I started working in a school and saw the damage that the piling on of masses can cause that I felt the need to speak out. But yes, in the future I shall speak on it
@Milo
I was bullied a ton as a child. Now the bullies are suffering from the effects of karma. Do I care? Not exactly. Life tends to give back in droves, what you give. So people being excited for her downfall aren’t sick, as you say; they are simply excited to see one of the nastiest people in the industry start to collapse. It’s fairly normal to want horrible people to be knocked off their pedestal. Hiding behind the “nobody should be knocked down” to enable a bully means you’re basically a bystander. I sure was pissed at kids that did nothing to help prevent my tormentors because “well, they shouldn’t be treated poorly and they shouldn’t have to suffer a downfall.” F that. She’s a mean girl and she needs to suffer the natural consequences of being a mean girl. It’s the only way to learn.
i don’t think anyone is saying its okay to bully anyone. I think they are saying the exact opposite
She told actual lies and actually tried to bury Kanye and make herself look like an innocent victim. She publicly tries to shame, humiliate, and bully people through her music. Instagram shielding her from a snake emoji while Twitter sat back and let an actually innocent Leslie Jones have her character assassinated because small minded garbage didn’t like a black woman being in a movie reboot. The disparity is glaring.
Calling someone a liar when they get caught in a lie isn’t really bullying, neither is a snake emoji- and saying that isn’t about Taylor Swift being likable or not- even it were a more liked public figure, calling that bullying and harassment would seem like reaching. There is a need to be more careful with little kids, but Taylor is 27, not 7.
Did Taylor get a new chin?
This just makes her look worse, IMO.
I certainly understand wanting to be rid of some of the very nasty comments – like death threats – but come on… snake emojis? And why, if she has such pull, did she not use her influence to help out another woman going through the same damn thing? Or insist that EVERYONE have access to it?
All she’s done is make herself look even more childish and petty, while continuing to destroy her “sweet innocent blonde child” image by showing how manipulative & controlling she really is.
Such social media sites should offer tools for companies and verified accounts to filter out spam/abuse. Seems about right to me.
What happens if a body such as a police force access this tool, or a corporate body with poor race relations procedures, and utilise it to censor #blacklivesmatter ? If Swift can get for a rather anodyne emoji, what next?
@Dippit Then perhaps government-run social accounts shouldn’t be given these privileges, though I’m sure they already have them.
Website creators such as WordPress give site runners the power to delete comments or mark them as spam with the click of a button, and they disappear immediately. It’s the same concept.
Perhaps all true K.C., in any event it’s difficult to deny that Swift seeking to utilise such a tool speaks volumes as to her lack of character, maturity, and ability to take responsibility for criticism levelled at her as wrought by her own dishonesty and controlling actions.
I think this choice by her to seek such ‘protection’ from consequences, particularly when counterpoised with lack of immediate access for so many in need of much greater protection from much worse levelled at them unbidden and without any justification, further legitimises much of the foundations for the manipulative reputation she now embodies writ large. She has chosen to compound the root of criticism, rather than address or confound it.
That is ridiculous the amount of hate comments and sexual crap on Instagram and she gets that tool? Not for us non celebrities not for many brands either. How many times have I seen nudity bdsm sexual racial things not one delete takes days to get it gone. That’s what 450 million buys you.
This is like the equivalent of plugging one’s ears, yelling lalalalalalala and refusing to hear anything critical. Can’t say I’m surprised as she’s led a privileged life with her parents coddling her all the way to the top.
I’m just glad that her censorship of critical remarks or emojis can’t extend to online publications who have been calling her out and writing think pieces about her. Those are much more effective than snake emojis, which is no better than the level of grade school name calling.
People seem to be forgetting that Instagram is a private corporation, and not the government. They can do whatever they want. Freedom of speech doesn’t apply.
And the claim that ordinary people should have it too because they’re harassed anonymously. Why not make your account private? If you’re an ordinary person, why give public access to everyone if you don’t like the attention?
Always using the race card. Sometimes, it’s more about the money. It just happens that TS who has money happens to be an Aryan Goddess
Looks to me like they may already have the filter on fka twigs’ insta acct as well. I don’t see the usual garbage there. But I agree that it took white privilege to spark the change.
I dont care for kim or taylor ,Kanye however is talented out of the bunch,But i dont like rap music.so yeah bascially i dont care for any of them.but what Taylor did is not a lie its bascially slander,its defamation.so yeah it has a bad intent written all over it.You may call it a lie but lie is when my child tells me they did not eat the candy.now when people try to start rumors or character assassination or stuff like what Taylor did ,its called slander.
The problem isn’t her utilizing this resource. I’d probably do the same in her position – what else could she do but ban comments all together? This story is all over the media, so it’s not like she can avoid it. The real problem here is that Instagram has these tools available, yet refuses to option them to the public, most of whom lack the resources Swift has to protect herself. That’s pretty gross on their part.
Wow. So much hysteria over something so…..simple.