Twitter has issued new rules to help clamp down on abusive behaviour as police investigate claims of abuse against eight people on the microblogging website.
The company's UK general manager Tony Wang has said he personally apologises to women who have experienced abuse on the site.
He added: "The abuse they've received is simply not acceptable. It's not acceptable in the real word and it's not acceptable on Twitter. There is more we can and will be doing to protect our users against abuse."
The firm said it was putting extra staff on the teams which handle abuse reports, and an "in-tweet" report button has been added so people can report abusive behaviour directly from a tweet.
Twitter is also working with the UK Safer Internet Centre, which promotes the safe and responsible use of technology.
The rules include "You may not publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others" and "You may not engage in targeted abuse or harassment".
The social networking website added: "User abuse and technical abuse are not tolerated on Twitter.com, and may result in permanent suspension."
Scotland Yard has said its e-crime unit is looking into eight abuse claims, three of which involve incidents outside London.
Twitter found itself in the spotlight after three female journalists said they had been the subject of bomb threats on the site and two other women - an MP and a campaigner - received threats of rape.
The bomb threat tweet was sent to Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman, Independent columnist Grace Dent and Europe editor of Time magazine Catherine Mayer, which Ms Dent took a screen grab of and posted for her Twitter followers to see.
In separate incidents, Labour MP Stella Creasy and campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, who successfully fought for a woman's face to appear on £10 banknotes, were threatened on Twitter with rape.
Two arrests have already been made in relation to those threats.
The revelations sparked a backlash online, with an online petition calling for Twitter to add a "report abuse" button to tweets attracting more than 120,000 signatures.
In a message posted on its blog, Twitter's senior director for trust and safety, Del Harvey, and Mr Wang said it has updated its rules in light of feedback from customers.
"It comes down to this: people deserve to feel safe on Twitter," they said.
"We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such behaviour was, or could ever be, acceptable," they wrote.
"We are committed to making Twitter a safe place for our users," they said, adding: "We're here, and we're listening to you.
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