Well, the four tech companies have announced a “bold package of commitments to tackle online abuse and improve women’s safety on their platforms” to be specific: it remains to be seen how well they follow through on these promises and tackle these problems.
But the announcement by Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter is welcome, coming at the UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris as part of a partnership with the Web Foundation.
Their commitments (which you can read in full here) include building more granular settings on who can see, share, comment or reply to posts; providing easier navigation and access to safety tools; “reducing the burden on women by proactively reducing the amount of abuse they see”; and improving their systems for reporting abuse.
There is some oversight here too: the Web foundation will be measuring the progress made by the tech companies, and reporting annually on their efforts.
“For too long, women have been routinely harassed, attacked and subsequently silenced in online spaces. This is a huge threat to progress on gender equality,” said the Foundation’s senior policy manager Azmina Dhrodia. “With their resources and reach, these four companies have the power to curb this abuse and improve online experiences for hundreds of millions of women and girls.”
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