Female journalists targeted on Twitter

Police have confirmed they are investigating bomb threats made against “a number of females on Twitter”. Three female journalists – the Independent’s Grace Dent, Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman and the editor of Time Magazine, Catherine Mayer – were among those targeted.

Dent managed to take a screenshot of the threatening tweet which read, in capitals: “A bomb has been placed outside your home. It will go off at exactly 10:47pm on a timer and trigger destroying everything.”

The threats come after feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez received death and rape threats following her successful campaign last week to have a female face on bank notes. Police confirmed at the weekend that they had arrested a 21-year-old man on harassment charges in connection with the deluge of abuse Criado-Perez suffered over a number of days.

When Labour MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy, spoke out in defence of Criado-Perez she also received a number of specific rape threats including one tweet which read: “You better watch your back….Im (sic) gonna rape your ass at 8pm and put the video all over the internet.”

Criado-Perez has set up a petition calling for Twitter to review its abuse reporting procedures and it has already garnered over 100,000 signatures.

Freeman, who received a bomb threat on Twitter appears to have been targeted after writing an article commenting on the abuse suffered by Criado-Perez. The reason for the targeting of Dent and Mayer, however, appears merely to be because they are women with public profiles.

Mayer told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that police had warned the three women to leave their homes for the night while police searched for explosive devices.

Joe Turnbull