Google’s Jigsaw unit has open-sourced its Harassment Manager tool for documenting and managing online abuse.
Built with women and other marginalized groups, reporters, activists, and politicians in mind, the web app helps users identify and document harmful social media posts, mute or block trolls, and hide harassing replies. So the effort, not surprisingly, will begin with Twitter.
“We worked with journalists and activists with large Twitter presences throughout the whole development cycle to build Harassment Manager to address their unique and immediate needs,” says Jigsaw, a unit within Google that explores threats to open societies.
The Harassment Manager code, which uses Jigsaw’s Perspective API to identify “toxic” language, is available now on GitHub, open-sourced for developers and non-governmental organizations to adapt for free.
“Our hope is that this technology provides a resource for people who are facing harassment online,” Jigsaw says. “We also look forward to seeing developers and organizations tailor it to their specific needs and use the technology to help other at-risk populations.”
Nearly three quarters of women journalists face online violence, according to a 2021 UNESCO study. Attacks, the report said, are designed to belittle, humiliate, shame, frighten, silence, discredit, and undermine; and they only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, which changed working conditions and boosted reliance on social media.
In addition to Twitter—which continues testing new safety measures on its own—Jigsaw collaborated with several NGOs, including Article 19, Code for Africa, European Women’s Lobby, Feminist Internet, Glitch, International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), Online SOS, Paradigm Initiative, and PEN America, Right To Be (formerly Hollaback!). The Thomson Reuters Foundation will be the first to bring Harassment Manager to a global community, Jigsaw says.
