Twitter launches a tool to manage online harassment

Twitter has launched a new tool in collaboration with Jigsaw for users who face targeted online harassment, to enable them to manage or report such unsolicited activities.

Jigsaw is a unit within Google that explores threats to open societies, and builds technology to drive scalable solutions. Twitter has collaborated with the company to build tools for users who are most at risk of experiencing targeted online violence or harassment, such as women, journalists, and activists.

Research shows 70% of female journalists receive threats and harassment online, and more than 40% of them stopped reporting a story as a result. The Harassment Management tool by Twitter will enable users to:

• Review, sort, and export harmful comments with trusted parties 
• Mute or block perpetrators 
• Hide replies to Tweets

Also Read: Twitter updates & expands the Birdwatch program

Harassment Manager can help users identify and document harmful posts, mute or block perpetrators of harassment and hide harassing replies to their own Tweets. Individuals can review tweets based on hashtag, username, keyword, or date, and leverage Jigsaw's Perspective API to detect comments that are most likely to be toxic. Built Twitter's API, this initial version can:

• Sort, identify & tag harmful comments by using Jigsaw's Perspective API
• Mute & block toxic content or users
• Hide replies to a user's tweets
• Document harassment by exporting reports to be shared as evidence of threats

Open-sourcing this code would enable developers & organizations to adapt it to meet the specific needs of their communities. The tool would be rolled out to journalists over the next few months. Additionally, users can also use Twitter Toolbox is a suite of self-serve tools that enables users to manage their Twitter presence and activities such as planning, scheduling, and analyzing content.