Social media platforms need to monitor more closely what’s happening on the internet
The singer, who has her own anti-bullying foundation, has pleaded with bosses at Twitter and other sites to put more money into tackling abusive users than they spend on advertising.
Speaking to a UK radio station, the 27 year-old said: ‘Twitter and other social media platforms need to monitor more closely what’s happening on the internet.
‘They should spend more on making sure they take down any abusive language and suspending accounts.’
The only people who can control it are the companies that run these sites
She is the latest celebrity to get involved in the debate surrounding internet trolls after Blue’s Duncan James asked for trolls to be prosecuted when he and band mate Antony Costa received bomb threats online.
Coleen Nolan also received similar threats this week when one Twitter user threatening to blow up her house and rape her.
Some Twitter users boycotted the service earlier this month in response to rape and bomb threats directed at female academics and writers including journalist Caitlin Moran.
Pressure on site owners to find a solution for the dangerous new trend was especially heightened when teen Hannah Smith killed herself after being trolled on ask.fm weeks ago.
You go on the internet and especially Twitter and the things I see really shock me
But despite urging her own fans to refrain from internet bullying, Lady Gaga has insisted stopping online abuse is the responsibility of site owners.
‘It’s not something we can control,’ she told radio presenters.
‘The only people who can control it are the companies that run these sites, and they’re putting money into the promotion of the site and the platform – not into monitoring.
‘If we were to monitor it better, it would be safer.’
The pop star, who said she was bullied herself as a teen said that the level of abuse online shocks her.
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‘You go on the internet and especially Twitter and the things I see really shock me.
‘This is the age we live in – this faceless cyber-bullying. There’s no accountability, there’s no recourse. Freedom of speech is freedom of speech but there’s a line that needs to be drawn when the language becomes abusive.’
Earlier this week the star had to release a statement asking her ‘little monsters’ to stop abusive messages to Perez Hilton after the pair became embroiled in an online spat.
On her blog, she wrote: ‘Sending threats of any kind, using hateful or abusive language, and the provoking of others on the internet is not supported by me or anything that I stand for.’