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firloop
I wonder if the implementation of these tools will be similar to something already happening on Reddit, where users that comment/post on hate subreddits are automatically banned from many other places on the site.
Cyberdog
It sounds more like the "Good Game Auto Blocker," [1] by that wonderful human being Randi "freebsdgirl" Harper [2]. It will block people on your Twitter account who are on a list of accounts believed to be associated with the #GamerGate movement, though it's known to have been overzealous at times, including an account operated by KFC in its lists [3] to much amusement. (This list seems to be generated by checking an account's followers to see if it follows the accounts of too many "leaders" or known pro-GG partisans.) In theory, there's nothing wrong with lists like these if they're just used for their intended purpose, but there's some fear that they might be used as industry hiring blacklists, as some have already proposed [4].

In short, if you're going to "troll" on Twitter (which includes sharing opinions others might not like) and end up on one of these lists, it might be best to do so strictly pseudonymously.

1: https://github.com/freebsdgirl/ggautoblocker

2: http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/06/29/harping-o... and http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2015/07/02/the-fact-a... - NSFW language, and the author clearly has an ideological bias, but damn.

3: http://gamesnosh.com/igda-kfc/

4: http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/11/blizzard-engineer-pose...

[dead] x0ra
so this is where things have end up, "ugly troll" vs "wonderful human being" ?
anon4
Those hit a bit too close to some of the plot points of the White Christmas episode of the Black Mirror series.
VLM
Its an interesting linguistic drift how "trolling" has changed over the decades to now mean a troll is someone who observes people expressing non-dominant political opinions.
nailer
It's interesting it contains a list of people in sourcelist.txt and code like this:

    # get a list of idiots
    open B, '<', $sourcelist_file or die "Can't open $sourcelist_file: $!\n";
    foreach ( <B> ) {
        chomp;
        push @idiots, $_;
    }
    close B;
I'd imagine calling people idiots via source code is against the GitHub TOS.
adventured
> I'd imagine calling people idiots via source code is against the GitHub TOS.

Not specifically. They have two clauses however that open it to a strictly subjective determination. First, they reserve the right to cancel any account, at any time, for any reason. Second, they have sections regarding offensive content (G.7/8), that gives them the right to remove such at their discretion.

5F36B5F62640
The mistake Harper, Richards, Kane and many others make is failing to distinguish being disliked because of their gender, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or other minority status and being disliked because they are assholes.
mintplant
Is it just me, or is this almost a non-article? The only new information seems to be:

> Bruce Daisley, the head of Twitter in Europe, said the site would give its 320 millions users new tools to protect them from trolls

...and even that is non-specific.

teaneedz
Also without any specifics on how this will not be abused - Twitter really needs a lesson in comms.

Would much rather hear a firm statement that they are keeping reverse chronological tweets and 140 char limits because that is their identity.