online harassment

ActiveFence snaps up Spectrum Labs, last valued at $137M, to help fight the harmful content creep

Misinformation, harassment, grooming and other illegal activity continue to be major issues in the worlds of content moderation and online safety, balancing big problems and illicit activity against e

Meta adds voice controls for Horizon Worlds, which defaults to live chat with strangers

Meta might soon want everyone to hop into its playful virtual realms, but some users are set up for a shock. In the service of pushing people to socialize in Horizon Worlds, the virtual social network

Twitch’s newest moderation tool spots accounts trying to get around channel bans

Twitch introduced a new way for streamers to fight accounts that evade channel-level bans Tuesday. The automated tool is called “Suspicious User Detection” and can spot users trying to get

Netflix fired the employee who organized a walkout in solidarity with trans workers

Netflix fired an employee who led the company’s trans employee resource group and planned a walkout on October 20, a current and former Netflix employee with knowledge of the situation confirmed

Twitter is testing prompts that warn you when a conversation has bad vibes

If you’ve ever tweeted something innocuous that went on to kick off a firestorm of unwanted attention, you know full well that people on Twitter will fight about anything and everything — it&#

Twitch sues two users for harassing streamers with hate raids

Twitch filed a lawsuit late last week against two people on its own platform for running automated hate and harassment campaigns. The harassment, often targeted at Black and LGBTQ streamers, manifests

Discord buys Sentropy, which makes AI software that fights online harassment

The online chat platform Discord is buying Sentropy, a company that makes AI-powered software to detect and remove online harassment and hate. Discord currently uses a “multilevel” approac

Twitch expands its rules against hate and abuse to include behavior off the platform

Twitch will start holding its streamers to a higher standard. The company just expanded its hate and harassment policy, specifying more kinds of bad behavior that break its rules and could result in a

Twitter bots and memorialized users will become ‘new account types’ in 2021

After a period of public feedback, Twitter adjusted some its plans for a new verification process, set to roll out next year. The company suspended public verification applications in 2017 and since a

Decrypted: DEA spying on protesters, DDoS attacks, Signal downloads spike

This week saw protests spread across the world sparked by the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis last month. The U.S. hasn’t seen prote

Twitter runs a test prompting users to revise ‘harmful’ replies

In its latest effort to deal with rampant harassment on its platform, Twitter will look into giving users a second chance before they tweet. In a new feature the company is testing, users who use &#82

Twitter launches the ‘Hide Replies’ feature, in hopes of civilizing conversations

Twitter today is beginning its test of a radical and controversial change to its service with the launch of a new “Hide Replies” feature. Effectively, this option gives users the ability t

AntiToxin sells safetytech to clean up poisoned platforms

The big social networks and video games have failed to prioritize user well-being over their own growth. As a result, society is losing the battle against bullying, predators, hate speech, misinformat

YouTube under pressure to ban UK far-right activist after live-streamed intimidation

The continued presence of a U.K. far-right activist on YouTube’s platform has been raised by the deputy leader of the official opposition during ministerial questions in the House of Commons tod

2018 really was more of a dumpster fire for online hate and harassment, ADL study finds

Around 37 percent of Americans were subjected to severe hate and harassment online in 2018, according to a new study by the Anti-Defamation League, up from about 18 percent in 2017. And more than half

Tall Poppy aims to make online harassment protection an employee benefit

For the nearly 20 percent of Americans who experience severe online harassment, there’s a new company launching in the latest batch of Y Combinator called Tall Poppy that’s giving them the

Twitter acquires anti-abuse technology provider Smyte

Twitter this morning announced it has agreed to buy San Francisco-based technology company Smyte, which describes itself as “trust and safety as a service.” Founded in 2014 by former Goog

Here’s how to kick nazis off your Twitter right now

While you wait for Twitter to roll out "more aggressive" rules regarding hate speech, which CEO Jack Dorsey promised are coming within "weeks" as of late Friday, here's a quick workaround to kick naz

A huge new survey shows that teens are bullied most on Instagram and Facebook

According to British anti-bullying organization Ditch The Label’s new annual survey, Instagram is the network of choice for cyberbullies in 2017, with Facebook close behind. This year’s su

Pew study says 41 percent of adults in the U.S. have been harassed online

Online harassment is an all-too-common occurrence in the U.S., with 41 percent of adults saying they have experienced harassment online, and 66 percent of people saying they've seen it happen to other
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