Twitter now allows women to report online harassment

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Twitter announced a partnership with nonprofit advocacy group Women, Action, and the Media (WAM!) last week, which changed Twitter’s policy on online harassment towards women.

Jaclyn Friedman, Executive Director of WAM!, spoke on behalf of the organization, saying it was “thrilled to be working with Twitter” to make the platform a safer place for women.

25% of women between the ages of 18 and 24 have experienced online sexual harassment, according to the Pew Research Internet Project. 26% of women in the same age bracket experienced online stalking.

In contrast, the study found 13% of 18 to 24-year-old men experienced online sexual harassment, and 7% experienced online stalking.

“The disproportionate targeting of women online results in them removing their voices from the public conversation,” Friedman said. “We’re so glad that Twitter recognizes that the best way to ensure equally free speech for all users on their platform is to ensure that all users are equally free to speak without being targeted by harassment, abuse and threats.”

Before the partnership with WAM! Twitter did have its own reporting system. It allowed individuals to report other users under the categories of posting offensive content, violent threats, private information, spam or otherwise engaging in harassment.

But WAM!’s reporting form is radically different.

For one, it’s tailored towards combating the type of abusive behavior women are more likely to be subjected to. It allows women to report impersonation, violent threats, doxxing, false information, hate speech, revenge porn and the encouragement of people to harass via offline methods.

WAM!’s form also allows women to enter multiple Twitter handles at once, different from Twitter’s form.

If a woman was verbally attacked by several people at once, like Jessica Valenti was for asking about countries with free or subsidized tampons, she could report several users at once, rather than filling out one form after another.

The form is a big step in promoting women’s safety on social media.

Some observers think Twitter is not pulling its own weight — and at the moment the form is only available through WAM!’s website.

WAM! is working with Twitter to look at how harassment and gendered harassment intersect — and how Twitter can develop responses to that.

Katherine Park is a multimedia journalist and a junior at Rutgers University.

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