MEGAN MCARDLE: Twitter’s Harassment Problem Is Just Business.

First, let’s get the obligatory disclaimers out of the way. I think online harassment is terrible, and I have been a victim of it. In fact, I’m so old that I was a victim of vicious online harassment before there was Twitter. I have often been told I should die and heard fervent wishes that I should live while a loved one is killed in my place. I’ve also heard many of the quasi-threatening missives favored by less courageous trolls, which begin “I know where you live” and proceed to lengthy meditations on what a pity it would be if someone broke into my house and proceeded to commit the sort of violent mayhem that the writer is not quite brave enough to commit themselves. I won’t even begin to catalog the unfavorable comments on my appearance and general desirability, because you probably don’t have the rest of the day to read this column.

So I get the problem, I really do. But to talk realistically about solutions, we can’t just talk about Twitter as if it were some sort of collective social institution. We need to talk about it as a company — one that will need to (eventually) make some money if it is going to survive.

People writing about Twitter’s harassment problem — and demanding that Twitter do more to fix it — frequently mention that it is worth billions and has strong revenue growth. But there’s a word you’ll rarely see: profit. And that’s because Twitter hasn’t yet shown one. . . .

The proposed actions would make things much better for established folks with sizable followings. On the other hand, it would erode the appeal for new users who don’t have sizable followings, because a lot of the more famous folks they want to follow and talk to would have blanket-banned them — not because they did something wrong, but because other people who superficially resemble them did. And that, in turn, would probably make them more likely to drop out, not turn into engaged users whose eyeballs can then be sold to advertisers.

Maybe it’s not all that viable a business, long-term.