Seth Rogen has been privately lobbying the boss of Twitter for the last eight months in an effort to stifle white supremacists on the platform, but apparently to no avail.
The Hollywood star revealed that his direct messages with Jack Dorsey about extremist users having verified accounts – the blue tick that confirms a person is who they claim to be – resulted in no action being taken by the Twitter founder.
Rogen aptly took to Twitter to report his progress. "I've been DMing with @jack about his bizarre need to verify white supremacists on his platform for the last 8 months or so, and after al the exchanges, I've reached a conclusion: the dude simply does not seem to give a f***."
The tweet has already received more than 4,000 replies, with many users taking the opportunity to share their own experiences of abuse and bullying on Twitter. Advocacy group Sleeping Giants, which campaigns to prevent the spread of abusive online content, responded by saying the problem was not limited to Twitter.
Twitter has cracked down on extremist content on its platforms in recent years, having received widespread attention after accounts supporting ISIS began to proliferate in 2015.
In the space of six months in 2016, the social media site suspended 235,000 accounts for violating its policies regarding the promotion of terrorism and violent threat.
Extremist groups, including white supremacists and Nazis, have more recently shifted onto other platforms, such as Google Plus, in an effort to continue sharing images, videos and memes inciting violence.
A Google spokesperson told The Independent last month that it has "more to do" in order to properly address the issue and has put a dedicated team in place in order to do so.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on Rogen's tweet or the issue of Nazis and white supremacists on its platform, and Mr Dorsey is yet to comment since it was posted.
The rules for its users relating to abusive behaviour state: "We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behaviour that crosses the line into abuse, including behaviour that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user's voice."
Rogen isn't the first celebrity to lobby Mr Dorsey about Twitter, with Kim Kardashian West recently revealing that she "had a very good convo" with him about adding an edit button feature. She seemed to have more success than Rogen in her plea, tweeting: "I think he really heard me out."
