An AI tool for fighting Twitter dogpiles.
Google’s Jigsaw unit is releasing the code for an open source anti-harassment tool called. The tool, intended for journalists and other public figures, employs Jigsaw’s Perspective API to let users sort through potentially abusive comments on social media platforms starting with Twitter. It’s debuting as source code for developers to build on, then being launched as a functional application for Thomson Reuters Foundation journalists in June.
Harassment Manager can currently work with Twitter’s API to combine moderation options — like hiding tweet replies and muting or blocking accounts — with a bulk filtering and reporting system.for levels of “toxicity” based on elements like threats, insults, and profanity. It sorts messages into queues on a dashboard, where users can address them in batches rather than individually through Twitter’s default moderation tools.
Jigsaw announced Harassment Manager on International Women’s Day, and it framed the tool as particularly relevant to female journalists who face gender-based abuse, highlighting input from “journalists and activists with large Twitter presences” as well as nonprofits like the International Women’s Media Foundation and the Committee To Protect Journalists., the team says it’s hoping developers can tailor it for other at-risk social media users.