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The Thomson Reuters Foundation teamed up with Google’s Jigsaw unit and Twitter on TRFilter, a new tool that lets journalists document and manage instances of online harassment and abuse.
TRFilter syncs with a journalist’s Twitter account and uses machine learning technology to automatically recognize and flag harmful comments, and it offers users the options to block, mute or save comments at scale, without manually reviewing them.
The tool also creates reports that journalists can download and share with third parties, such as their employers or law enforcement.
Journalists who wish to begin using TRFilter can register here and log in through their Twitter account, at which point they will be shown a video with a step-by-step guide on how the tool works.
Jigsaw, the Thomson Reuters Foundation and Twitter joined forces in March to open-source Harassment Manager, a web application that allows users to review, sort and export harmful comments targeted toward them on social platforms with trusted parties, debuting on Twitter and enabling users to mute or block the source of the negative interaction, as well as hide replies to tweets.
Thomson Reuters Foundation noted that women journalists are especially impacted by the issues TRFilter is aimed at correcting, saying that nearly three-quarters of them have experienced threats online of death, physical violence and sexual violence, with much of that abuse seen as an attempt to discredit or silence them.
Earlier this year, the Thomson Reuters Foundation teamed up with the International News Safety institute, the International Women’s Media Foundation and Unesco to develop a range of legal and practical tools for journalists, media managers and newsrooms to deal with challenges of this sort experienced by journalists, and versions of the guides they produced are available in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian.
Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Antonio Zappulla said in a statement, “After months of work alongside our partner, Jigsaw, I am excited to launch access to a tool that will empower journalists and media practitioners targeted by online violence around the world. Journalists’ mission of accurate and independent reporting is integral to the survival of a democratic society. It is imperative they have access to practical solutions that match the rapid evolution of the digital and legal warfare used to silence them.”
He added, “The foundation’s extensive experience of collaboration with global partners, combined with our unique ability to leverage the twin engines of media and the law, places us at the center of international expertise to support media freedom and defend human rights. We will continue to work tirelessly to protect journalists and the future of independent media to strengthen free, fair and informed societies.”
