Twitter vs the Trolls: Twitter to update its policies in wake of Williams' abuse

Twitter responds after Robin Williams daughter was bombarded with abusive messages just days after his death.

Just days after his death, Robin Willliams' daughter, Zelda, was forced off Twitter by a couple of users sending her messages blaming her for her fathers death as well as photoshopped images of her father's body.

Zelda tweeted that she was 'shaking' and that she would be leaving the social network, possibly for good.

There was widespread outrage and calls for Twitter to crack down on this kind of user harassment.

Twitter has since removed the two accounts responsible and has promised to explore new ways of cutting down on this kind of harassment.

In a statement released Wednesday, the head of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Team, Del Harvey, said that they would be looking into updating their policies.

"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," he said.

"This includes expanding our policies regarding self-harm and private information, and improving support for family members of deceased users."

There have been no announcements as to when or how their policies will be changed.

Twitter's system currently allows users to report and document abuse and to request that certain accounts be removed.

Last summer, Twitter introduced its "Report Abuse" button after British activist Caroline Criado-Perez complained about her inability to report Twitter users who were threatening to rape and kill her. The threats came in response to her ultimately successful campaign to get notable women from history featured on English and Welsh banknotes.

Of course, reporting abuse can only happen after the abuse has occured. It remains to be seen whether there is anything Twitter or any other social media company can do to prevent the kind of harassment Zelda Williams endured.