Twitter staff have an ‘acute consciousness’ of its role on gender-based harassment

There is an "acute consciousness" among staff at Twitter of the role social media can play "for bad as well as for good" when it comes to gender-based harassment, the managing director of Twitter Dublin Sinead McSweeney has said.

McSweeney was speaking to The Women's Podcast as she announced that Women's Aid, the organisation working to prevent domestic violence has been chosen as the company's main charity partner for 2022. The choice of charity, McSweeney said, is "generally driven by whatever is resonating with the team at a particular point in time. This year, we are very pleased that our employees have nominated Women's Aid, who undertake such important work every day by providing a lifeline for so many vulnerable women and children who suffer from domestic abuse."

Women's Aid was chosen by staff from eight nominated charities. Joining McSweeney on the podcast, Sarah Benson, chief executive of Women's Aid, said her team were "delighted" to have been nominated by the Twitter Dublin team as their Twitter For Good charity of the year.

"Domestic abuse is a global scourge," said Benson. "In Ireland one in four women are subjected to this abuse over their lifetime, along with thousands of children."

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The work of Women’s Aid combines frontline services such as the National 24-hour Freephone Helpline, with specialist advocacy, training and public campaigning initiatives. Benson said their objective was “to create an Ireland with zero tolerance of domestic abuse, and all forms of violence against women.” She added that working with the Twitter Dublin team was a “wonderful opportunity for us to raise vital funds for our services and to partner in expanding that critical community response, to combat and prevent abuse.”

McSweeney explained that the Twitter For Good initiative dates back to the early days of the company. “Our founders strongly believed that wherever we had offices located, we would ensure that giving back and benefiting the community would be a core part of our culture. In Dublin, we do this through our charity of the year initiative.”

Previous Irish charities that have benefited from Twitter For Good include Alone Ireland, the Irish Cancer Society and the Peter McVerry Trust.

To launch the 2022 partnership and to help promote the work undertaken by Women's Aid, the @TwitterDublin handle will host an exclusive "fireside chat" with Karen White, head of public policy, Twitter EMEA and Sarah Benson, chief executive, Women's Aid on Twitter Spaces in May ahead of the company's Twitter For Good fundraiser.