Twitter Takes Action After Zelda Williams Is Harassed

In the wake of Zelda Williams announcing she’s leaving social media after receiving disgusting messages, including fake death photos of her late father Robin Williams, Twitter has decided to crack down and review their policy.

As we reported as soon as the news of Robin Williams’ passing came to light, Twitter and Instagram trolls sought out the actor’s middle child Zelda Williams. While the rest of the world was mourning with Zelda, some on social media felt the need to post faux photos of Robin Williams’ body in the morgue directly to Zelda.

Robin Williams’ daughter was targeted after she received media attention when she took to Twitter to initially address her father’s death. Her first tweet was brief but it prompted ridiculous backlash. In the past the answer to internet trolls was simply “don’t feed the trolls” and ignore them, but the tweets were understandably too much and Zelda addressed the abuse she had to endure while mourning her father’s death.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve risen above. Deleting this from my devices for a good long time, maybe forever. Time will tell. Goodbye.”

According to Forbes, following Zelda’s very public announcement, Twitter’s Vice President has stepped up to deal with the abuse.

“We will not tolerate abuse of this nature on Twitter. We have suspended a number of accounts related to this issue for violating our rules and we are in the process of evaluating how we can further improve our policies to better handle tragic situations like this one. This includes expanding our policies regarding self-harm and private information, and improving support for family members of deceased users.”

On Instagram Zelda Williams left a message to those leaving disrespectful comments.

“In this difficult time, please try to be respectful of the accounts of myself, my family and my friends. Mining our accounts for photos of dad, or judging me on the number of them is cruel and unnecessary…I shared him with a world where everyone was taking their photo with him, but I was lucky enough to spend time with him without cameras too.”

In this dark time Zelda did find a bit of humor, just like her father Robin was known to do. She left a heartwarming statement up on her Tumblr about her father and what he meant to her, and towards the end of her statement called out the trolls once again.

“As for those who are sending negativity, know that some small, giggling part of him is sending a flock of pigeons to your house to poop on your car. Right after you’ve had it washed. After all, he loved to laugh too.”

Hopefully Twitter will make good of their word and foster a safe environment for everyone.

[Image via Bing]