According a Pew study, 25% of young women have been sexually harassed online and 26% experienced stalking. Women are disproportionately targeted by the most severe forms of abuse.
The pilot project will support all Twitter users experiencing gendered harassment and abuse on the platform, including racial, LGBT, and other kinds of oppression, WAM! announced in a press release Thursday.
After the pilot test, WAM! will analyze the data and use it to work with Twitter “to better understand how gendered harassment intersects with other types of harassment, how those attacks function on their platform, and to improve Twitter’s responses to it.”
“The disproportionate targeting of women online results in them removing their voices from the public conversation,” Jaclyn Friedman, Executive Director of WAM!, said in a statement. “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.”