Google takes anti-harassment step for female journalists, public figures

• Twitter and Jigsaw create a tool called "Harassment Manager."
• The code is released on GitHub for developers and governments to use.
• The tool will especially be helpful for female journalists and public figures.

Tech giant Google has taken a step to reduce online harassment step by launching a tool called Harassment Manager on the occasion of International Women’s Day, CNET reported.

Jigsaw Unit and Twitter joined hands to create this took for the safety of female journalists and public figures. 

"Our hope is that this technology provides a resource for people who are facing harassment online, especially female journalists, activists, politicians, and other public figures, who deal with disproportionately high toxicity online," Jigsaw said. 

The software has a filtering and reporting system to keep records of online harassment. 

The report further said that the tool, which will have an open-source code, will work with Twitter’s Application Programming Interface (API) to combine moderation steps like blocking and muting accounts or reporting comments. 

Jigsaw and Twitter worked with several journalists and human rights organisations. The tool can help victims of harassment identify and report harmful comments and messages. 

The Harassment Manager cannot be downloaded as it will require media outlets to integrate its code into other software that reporters can use to evaluate tweets, the report said.