Tech Giants Have Started Collabing With Women’s Groups To End Online Abuse

“Finally!”, scream women of the internet. 

Tech firms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter are finally taking major steps in ramping up methods to protect people who are being abused and tormented through their services. 
While online harassment happens to people of all genders, the focus is largely on the abuse of women purely because their statistics of being abused are noticeably and devastatingly higher. 
According to The Guardian, the companies are talking to grass-roots NGOs (non-government organisations), women’s rights groups, and other communities in Africa, USA, India, Europe and the Middle East in order the tackle the ever-increasing issue of abuse. 
To clarify: abuse isn’t reduced to only ‘saying something negative’, just to nip that idea in the bud. While mean and/or aggressive comments piling up are definitely terrible too, the stories of abuse prompting this action also includes doxxing, stalking, threats and much, much more. 
Facebook have taken action by leading roundtable discussions across the globe with women’s groups and women’s rights advocates. The discussions, led by Facebook‘s head of global security Antigone Davis, included over 120 activists and organisations. 
Google have also begun their research into abuse and intimidation on the internet, but have not yet released details of this global research. 
Twitter have also partnered with a number of women’s groups, as well as police and prosecutors to find out how they can better protect their users. 
One only needs to look at the Gamergate melee in order to see the kind of horrendous treatment women can experience on Twitter – female gaming writers were threatened, stalked, harassed (online and IRL), doxxed, tormented. Why? Because sexism can easily be disguised as indignation at a supposed ‘lack of ethics in video game journalism’. 
A more recent example is that of Alison Rapp, a former employee of Nintendo. She was fired from the company for reasons undisclosed, and is now being harassed by male gamers and gaming writers because alleged images of her working in the sex work industry were found. 
She has posted this series of tweets within the last 24 hours, saying NOT ONLY is she being doxxed, stalked, and needing police assistance, her family and friends are too:

Whether or not it would have happened the same way if those writers weren’t not women can be debated until the cows come home, but the answer is blindingly obvious. 
While Google, Facebook and Twitter are all in early stages of working with women’s groups in order to tackle this behemoth problem, it’s a start. A very necessary, sorely-needed start. 
Sarah Green, of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said this regarding the new changes:
“Any moves by social media companies to support, encourage and empower individuals and groups to resist and counter abuse is very welcome.  

But we can’t say that’s the whole answer – we wouldn’t say that harassment and assault of women in the street should simply be dealt with by victims fighting back. 

We need to keep reviewing whether there is an adequate legal and policing response, and whether social media companies are doing enough through their own policies and practices towards perpetrators of abuse as well as victims.”
Source: The Guardian
Photo: Gianni Diliberto / Getty.

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