'Milifandom' founder Abby Tomlinson has reported a Twitter troll to his college after he allegedly threatened someone with rape.
The political activist and writer told her 33,000 Twitter followers that she had reported a user to Blackburn College “for making rape threats and engaging in other misogynistic abuse on social media”.
A representative for Blackburn college then responded to Ms Tomlinson on social media, saying “the College does not tolerate abusive or indecent behaviour” and that “they have “formally dealt with the incident”.
The 17-year-old posted screenshots of the colleges’ reply, writing "the things you say things on social media... have consequences” just like in real life.
And the moral of this story is, that the things you say on social media, like those you say irl, have consequences pic.twitter.com/7765ztb6zG
— Abby Tomlinson (@twcuddleston) September 22, 2015
Although that tweet was not addressed to Ms Tomlinson and to another user, the teenager told the The Independent: “After seeing ‘you’re gonna get raped’, I felt this was unacceptable and needed reporting - I would not want to attend an institution with an individual who said such things.”
Ms Tomlinson said that since reporting the tweets, she has received a mixed reaction with half being supportive and half insulting her, calling her a “grass”.
“People said that his tweets to someone else aren’t my responsibility, but my view is that it didn’t matter who he was directing that language and comments at, it was still disgusting and needed reporting.”
A spokesperson for Blackburn College told the The Independent that the college “does not tolerate abuse on social media and are dealing with the matter internally”.
Ms Tomlinson started the Milifandom movement in support of former Labour leader Ed Miliband during the General Election campaign earlier this year. She is now applying for university.
Discussing trolling, she said: “I get trolled quite often, though usually not to this extent, sadly I think it’s something I’m used to by now.”
She later posted on Twitter that she was encouraged to report the troll following an incident involving feminist activist Caroline Criado-Perez and Labour MP Stella Creasy in 2014 after they campaigned to keep a woman on the £10 bank note.
Trollers Isabella Sorley and John Nimmo were subsequently jailed for the nature of their tweets.
also - probably wouldn't have thought not to just ignore this if it wasn't for the actions of @stellacreasy & and @CCriadoPerez
— Abby Tomlinson (@twcuddleston) September 23, 2015
