Black Woman Warned Twitter About Threats From Mail Bombing Suspect, But Twitter Did Nothing

In today’s episode of #ListenToBlackWomen, we have Rochelle Ritchie, a former congressional press secretary who reported mail bombing suspect Cesar Altieri Sayoc to Twitter for his threatening and abusive tweets. However, despite her reports, Twitter did nothing to remove the violent content and is now apologizing about the way it handled (or rather, did not handle) the situation, according to Time. “The Tweet clearly violated our rules and should have been removed,” the company said in a statement. “We are deeply sorry for that error.” Sure, that solves everything. Except Ritchie had warned Twitter weeks ago about Sayoc and you basically told her that despite the threats, there was “no violation of Twitter Rules,” so which is it?

Hey @Twitter remember when I reported the guy who was making threats towards me after my appearance on @FoxNews and you guys sent back a bs response about how you didn’t find it that serious. Well guess what it’s the guy who has been sending #bombs to high profile politicians!!!! pic.twitter.com/xBY8FMbqnq

— R O C H E L L E (@RochelleRitchie) October 26, 2018

Sayoc was arrested on Friday in Florida on accusations that he sent at least 13 suspected explosives through the mail to prominent Democratic politicians and donors, as well as news network CNN. A Twitter account with the handle @hardrock2016, using the name Cesar Altieri tweeted at Ritchie to “hug your loved ones real close every time you leave home.” Twitter later followed up telling her that its last response (you know, the one about nothing being wrong with the threats) was sent in error.

Just received from @Twitter oh so it was an error. Just stop! 🙄 pic.twitter.com/LoGT933W2p

— R O C H E L L E (@RochelleRitchie) October 26, 2018

Ritchie wasn’t the only one being targeted by Sayoc, who, according to Time also targeted former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s Twitter handle, writing “Hey slime scum U like make threats run your hole.Do not worry your cover up Fast Furious with your bitch Obama not forgotten about our very close friend of we Unconquered Seminole Tribe.See u soon Tick Tock 4.” Twitter is apparently conducting another investigation into what happened when it ignored Ritchie’s first warning, and how it will move forward with handling concerns made by users. Twitter, it says, “wants to be a place where people feel safe, and we know we have a lot of work to do.” You sure do, but a good rule of thumb to start with is to listen to Black women.