If you are a victim of cyberbullying, online abuse, or online harassment on X (formerly Twitter), you can take steps to remove abusive posts from the site. Acts of cyberbullying or harassment may be both against the law and against the site’s rules. Have online users invaded your privacy and ruined your reputation with posts such as revenge porn, spreading false rumors, or releasing personal information? The first step you can take is reporting the post to site admins.
By clicking the “More” button in the upper right corner of a tweet, you can find a “Report Tweet” option in the drop-down menu. After clicking “Report Tweet,” you’ll find several options that may be relevant to your situation. You may choose “It displays a sensitive photo or video” or “It’s abusive or harmful.” Both options include avenues for reporting sensitive information or imagery uploaded without your consent. Twitter’s staff takes these reports seriously and if evidence of wrongdoing is found, they will take down the posts fairly quickly. You can also contact Twitter staff about abusive posts directly through Twitter Support.
However, if this problem persists or your petition to Twitter’s staff is unsuccessful for some reason, you may want to contact local authorities. Actions such as spreading damaging lies, publishing sensitive information, and revenge porn fall under the banner of cyberstalking, which is punishable as a crime under certain states’ laws. However, there is not much federal legislation against cyberstalking, so it is easier to press charges for cyberstalking in states such as California, New York, Texas, Missouri, and Florida.
If your sensitive information or images have spread past Twitter and into the Internet, you may want to consider hiring a reputation management firm to help you address the problem. Reputation management firms usually have strategies for removing sensitive images and information. Many of them even negotiate with website owners to take sensitive items down as quickly as possible.
