In cyberspace, no one can hear you report to the proper authorities (Day 31 KEDfaY)

This post is going to be a little ranty so if that isn't your thing, probably best to ignore everything and just take to heart that I did knit today (ONE WHOLE MONTH! WOAH!)

Today, for those who might not know, is a silent protest that is happening on Twitter. Lately there have been a quite a few incidents where people have been threatened and there is no way, currently, on Twitter to report these people so they just continue to tell women to "get fucked to death" and various other threats. These abusive tweets have landed at least two men in the UK in prison. How wonderful would it be if we could get something like that in the US, huh? But that is a different rant for a different day.

The problem that is happening with #twittersilence is that many people think it is just making the victims of the situation shut up and not fight back. That's not what the purpose is.

You get bullied. You stay quiet. You try to fight back. You report to the proper authorities, except, for those following along at home, there is no proper authority to report to. This day of #twittersilence is a way to get the people who run and control Twitter to realize that there is a problem and they need to fix it.

"How does half a million people if not more not tweeting for a day make Twitter realize there is a problem?" you might ask. Half a million, this is just a rough number estimate, is a LOT of people, a lot of people YOU CAN'T ADVERTISE TO. Those who might use the Twitter website might be frustrated with "promoted tweets" or "sponsored tweets." If your customers aren't getting as many clicks and page views as you promised, you are in trouble. If something like this continued, they might lose their advertisers and that would be a bigger problem.

The easiest way to get a corporation to realize how something as seemingly harmless as trolls could affect them is to tell them how they're going to lose money. Having as many people as you can not use a website, a VERY popular website, for a day, will lose the company money.

So no, it isn't about getting victims to be quiet about the abuse they've gotten, it's about getting a multimillion dollar company to realize it needs to keep its users safe and happy if only so they can advertise to them.

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I went through my WIPs to try to find something that needed worked on or finished up and this blanket for charity fits the bill perfectly! I think I'm about halfway done! Whoo! I might run out of yarn, which seems to be a running theme for me and making blankets, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. I usually do!