Ashley Judd to Seek Charges Over Sexist and Violent Tweets

The actress Ashley Judd has said she will try to bring legal charges against people who tweeted abusive and sexist comments to her during a recent college basketball game.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the abuse of Judd began after she sent a tweet during the Southeastern Conference Basketball Championship game between the University of Kentucky and University of Arkansas.

Judde, a Kentucky fan, said that she believed the Arkansas team was playing dirty in an effort to get an edge over Kentucky. Shortly after sending the tweet, Judd found herself the victim of a barrage of offensive tweets from Arkansas fans.

In an interview with NBC she said that she has filled out and plans to file police reports against people who sent messages that contained ideations of "gender violence," according to the Times. Many of those tweets were quite graphic, containing epithets of both a violent and sexist nature.

It seems that Judd does not expect very much to come from the police reports and subsequent investigations, but hopes that the decision to take some kind of action will give some people pause.

The decision by Judd to pursue legal charges comes just weeks after Twitter said they would dedicate more resources and personnel to issues like harassment and bullying. The company says the reports of abuse they evaluate has increased five fold, while the staff handling such complaints has tripled.