Top Tech Firms Urged To Step Up Online Abuse Fightback (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report on The Guardian: Top tech companies are talking to grassroots organisations across the globe to organise a fightback on their platforms against online abuse, hate speech, misogyny and stalking. Facebook, Twitter and Google are reaching out to women's groups, NGOs and communities in Africa, America, India, Europe and the Middle East as the scale of abuse online continues to increase. But their attempts to foster a "counter-speech" movement to challenge the violent misogyny, racism, threats, intimidation and abuse that flood social media platforms have prompted some of the communities they are trying to empower to question whether they are ducking their own responsibilities. Sarah Green, of the End Violence against Women coalition, said: "Any moves by social media companies to support, encourage and empower individuals and groups to resist and counter abuse is very welcome."

Comments

Re:There are things to be offended about

[MightyMartian]

Exactly. I think there is some "thin-skinedness" in some of these claims of abuse, but at the same time there have been people that have been threatened with death. Even I was once, a long time ago, threatened with physical injury by someone who was losing an online debate and who was clearly coming undone by it. I never actually worried that it would happen as the fellow, so far as I gathered, was a Briton living in Poland, but I admit I was disconcerted by someone on a public Usenet group telling me he was going to come to my house and punch me in the head.