Facebook and Twitter come under fire, called 'egregious' and 'toxic'

"It’s about time we take a collective stand against the egregious behavior of Facebook. Every time these sorts of stories surface they assure us that they are 'trying harder'... enough is enough. I will be advising clients to stay off the platform entirely — hopefully, when [Facebook and other media platforms] feel the pain of lost advertising dollars things might just change," Baxter wrote on LinkedIn.

Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions at Facebook, responded by saying the company will focus on educating users about their privacy options heading into 2019.

"Over the past few days, we’ve been accused of not respecting people’s privacy settings and disclosing people’s private messages to partners without their knowledge. To reiterate, that is not true.

"Every day we work hand in hand with our advertising partners to help them grow their businesses and better serve their customers. We have a strong partnership with IPG agencies around the world and look forward to that continuing for years to come," said Everson.

Facebook is already under fire as the attorney general of Washington DC slapped the site with a lawsuit over its misuse of user data stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

IPG chairman and CEO Michael Roth said, "We take consumer privacy and protection very seriously. As an independent advisor to clients, we navigate a complex media environment and must balance audience engagement with brand safety. We look to all media platforms to be transparent about their usage of consumer data and will continue to work closely with our media partners, including Facebook, to ensure we have the highest data and privacy standards for our clients."

A spokesperson from IPG said the company encourages independent thinking, and Baxter's comments are just his own perspective on a major news story.

As for Twitter, a report from Amnesty International and Element AI called the site toxic, especially toward women. As a result, Citron Research likened the site to the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein and reduced Twitter's share price target for the platform to $20.

Using artificial intelligence, the study looked at tweets received by 778 journalists and politicians with varying political views from the UK and US throughout 2017.

The report found that 7.1% of tweets sent to the women in the study were categorized as abusive or problematic, amounting to a toxic tweet every 30 seconds.

Women of color were 34% more likely to be mentioned in an abusive tweet, and that number jumps to 84% for black women in particular.

"Twitter’s failure to effectively tackle violence and abuse on the platform has a chilling effect on freedom of expression online and undermines women’s mobilization for equality and justice — particularly groups of women who already face discrimination and marginalization," the Citron report says.

A spokesperson from Twitter said the company is investing in better technology and tools to enable the site to proactively identify abusive material and limit its spread.

"We continue to expand our transparency report to include relevant and meaningful data. Furthermore, fewer than 1% of accounts make up the majority of those reported for abuse and we are focused on using technology to undermine their presence on the service," the spokesperson said.

Vijaya Gadde, safety lead at Twitter, said how the report classified 'problematic' content warrants further discussion.