Facebook, Google, Twitter and TikTok promise extra online safety for women

Facebook, Google, Twitter and TikTok are introducing measures to improve the safety of women on their platforms. The companies announced this during the Generation Equality Forum in Paris. It is not yet known when the measures will take effect.

According to the press release, efforts are being made in two areas, curation and reporting, to improve the safety of women on the platforms of the above-mentioned companies. As for curation, the companies promise to make the path to security features on their platforms easier. Language use on the platforms is becoming easier and the abuse that women see online is ‘proactively’ reduced. Women also gain more control over who can comment on a post, who can share it, and who can see it.

The second set of measures falls under the heading of reporting. Users will be able to follow up on reports and have more options to add context and language comments to their report. The policies will be made even clearer during the report and opportunities will be shown to women during a report to get additional help or support.

It is not clear whether all of the above features will be made available to everyone and when they will actually be implemented. The measures are the result of four consultation rounds that the World Wide Web Foundation held with academics, social media companies and human rights organizations, among others, to find a solution to online gender-based violence.