Twitter Cracks Down on Repeat Trolls By Demanding Their Phone Numbers

Will trolling on Twitter soon require an investment in burner phones? In an effort to further Twitter’s mission to reign in harassers, the social media giant has instated a new set of safety updates, including requiring phone numbers and email addresses from users who are temporarily banned from the site for abuse or harassment.

Image by Cali4Beach via Creative Commons License

The idea is that instead of easily opening a new account to continue on their merry trolling way, offending users will be required to provide their phone number. If found on a list of previous offenders, they will be permanently banned from the site.

In addition to this recent effort to not “suck at dealing with abuse,” Twitter has also expanded on its previous efforts to strengthen and facilitate its abuse reporting process. Third party users may now report witnessed impersonation, self-harm, harassment, abuse, and the sharing of private information on the site.

While these updates may seem flimsy and easily bypassable, it’s nice to see that Twitter is at least trying to take the important problem of online harrassment seriously.