Twitter CEO admits, 'We suck at dealing with abuse' in leaked memo

A leaked internal memo from Twitter CEO Dick Costolo reveals his personal dismay at the company's inability to deal with harassers and trolls using its service.

The memo, obtained by Polygon's sister site The Verge, was written earlier this week in response to a much-shared article by Lindy West, who has been targeted for continued abuse, including one attacker who posed as her deceased father. Twitter has been the focus for criticism for its lackluster response to online abuse, most especially in the wake of hate campaigns under the Gamergate banner, directed at social commentators such as Anita Sarkeesian.

"We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we've sucked at it for years," Costolo wrote in the memo. "It's no secret and the rest of the world talks about it every day. We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day.

"I'm frankly ashamed of how poorly we've dealt with this issue during my tenure as CEO," he added. "It's absurd. There's no excuse for it. I take full responsibility for not being more aggressive on this front. It's nobody else's fault but mine, and it's embarrassing.

For more on this story, head over to The Verge.