Google to release Anti-Harassment tool for Journalists, Activists

Tech giants Google and Twitter are developing a tool to deal with online harassment, specifically targeted at female journalists and activists.

The tool named Harassment Manager is designed to identify and block harassing comments.

Twitter, one of the most popular platforms for journalists, collaborated with the tech giant to bring the tool to life.

The tool will be able to monitor and report and delete hateful and harassing comments and tweets

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The company in a Medium post said that the application’s main purpose is to control the harassment specifically faced by female journalists online.

Google’s Jigsaw unit said that “Our hope is that this technology provides a resource for people who are facing harassment online, especially female journalists, activists, politicians and other public figures, who deal with disproportionately high toxicity online.”

The new tool has been released at a time when harassment and intimidation of female journalists online continue to plague reporters around the world. According to a study by UNESCO from last year, 75% of female reporters have experienced online harassment and violence.

However, the Harassment Manager is not a downloadable application. Publications have to integrate their code into the software, after which their reporters can use the tool to evaluate tweets.

The application is expected to be rolled out in June, while the Thomson Reuters Foundation is set to be the first organization to make the Harassment Manager available for its reporters.