Igniyte’s Research Featured In The Times

Igniyte’s research on online reputation management has been used in a feature in The Times newspaper.

The article “Mary Beard names and shames troll on Twitter” discusses how classic historian Mary Beard publicly silenced an internet abuser on social media site Twitter. The historian named and shamed the abuser who sent her graphic and abusive messages on Twitter after she appeared on BBC Radio 2 to discuss rape threats made online against feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez.

Professor Beard retweeted the abusive message from Oliver Rawlings who made abusive comments about her age and genitals. This public shaming of abusive twitter users is one of many and highlights the importance of thinking carefully before posting things online. Oliver Rawlings later apologised and wrote. “I sincerely apologise for my trolling. I was wrong and very rude. Hope this can be forgotten and forgiven.”

This has caused public outrage and led to a petition of more than 62 000 signatures for Twitter to take urgent to protect women from online abuse. Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Home Affairs select committee has highlighted how social media sites including twitter have become very complacent at dealing with abuse on their sites. A report by the committee recommends that online accounts should be set to private as default, and that Internet service providers should do more to explain the dangers to users of sharing information online. Recent research suggests that one in 8 people are unhappy with information shared about them online and a study by Igniyte found that 1 in 5 businesses have been a victim of negative online content. Negative reviews are often posted by often posted by previous employees, rivals or unhappy customers.

This recent report highlights how important it is to carefully think about sharing information on social media sites and the importance of managing your online reputation for businesses, brands and individuals.