by
Tammy Cho
June 5, 2021
As the world has come online, so too has abuse and harassment. In every country, cyberbullying and other forms of online abuse have devastating impacts on people’s mental health, not to mention freedom of the press, democracy and the public interest, and much more.
Amongst young people globally, more than a third have experienced online bullying; in the most extreme and high-profile cases, influencers and celebrities from the UK, Japan and Korea have taken their own lives as a result. In a UNESCO global study conducted in English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese, 73% of female journalists reported experiencing online violence, with traumatic effects on their personal lives and chilling effects on their work. The targeting of female politicians and activists worldwide, from India to Zimbabwe, has direct consequences for democratic process.
Despite the global nature of the problem, most efforts for online safety focus on the American market—and English speakers—primarily, and do not work at all for those using social media in other languages.
But online harassment is not limited to English, and the need for solutions is also not limited to English. That’s why we’re proud to be building Block Party so that it works for everyone, no matter the language.
Although the platform itself is not translated yet, the core Block Party filtering service works for any language. You select your own rules for filtering potential trolls, based on data like how many followers they have, whether they have profile photos, and whether or not they are verified. These rules work independently of whatever language they may be bothering you in! Anyone who doesn’t pass the rules you’ve set is automatically muted and placed into your Lockout Folder on Block Party for you to review later, if and when you want to. You continue to use the Twitter app or website as before, but it’s a more peaceful experience.
To help you get started in your native language, we’re building out Block Party international guides. This is a growing library of guides that provide step-by-step instructions on how to set up and use Block Party. To start, we have guides in Spanish and Japanese; we’d love to hear your requests for other languages too!
Online abuse knows no borders. With our internationally distributed Block Party team spanning the US, UK, Serbia, France, Philippines and Mexico, we are taking intentional steps to better foster social media safety across the globe. Bye-bye, trolls.
Like what you see? Sign up for Block Party at blockpartyapp.com/signup today.
