Twitter Against Harassment Towards Women

"Twitter Teams with Advocacy Group to Fight Harassment Against Women"
By: Damon Beres
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/twitter-harassment-women_n_6122500.html?ir=Technology

Twitter has officially teamed up with an women's rights advocacy group in order to fight or stop gender harassment on social media. They have created a new tool which just got launched on Thursday. This tool allows victims to report harassment and allows them to report on behalf of others. The victim of harassment can describe their situation in detail. They can include the date the harassment started, if they are fearing for their personal safety or the type of abuse experienced. These details are then submitted to Women, Action and Media or (WAM!). This is a nonprofit that has been working for gender justice in social media since 2004. After this information is submitted to WAM, they work to find a resolution and then send it back to Twitter. "The joint effort follows months of heated discussion under the #GamerGate hashtag on Twitter that frequently resulted in abuse toward women -- sometimes so specific and violent that it drove victims into hiding out of concern for their personal safety" (Beres,1). This tool is represented on WAM, rather than Twitter itself. A representative form Twitter said this is the one of many ways they are trying to work against abuse.  Twitter still provides the option for users to report the form of harassment they are experiencing, but it does not provide all the options WAM does. "Though WAM! says it will bring reports of abuse to Twitter, the primary focus seems to be on data collection. According to the group's press release, information collected by the tool will ultimately inform how Twitter deals with harassment of women in the future" (Beres,1). This is a new step to help raise awareness and reach out to women who feel harassed.