Thursday, August 25, 2016

App To Warn When You're an Internet Harasser

Here's an interesting concept:
"Rather than spend the summer developing new chips, Alexei Bastidas spent his internship at Intel teaching a computer how to spot harassment on the internet. 
The result is a web app, currently in testing, that tells people just how intimidating they are on Twitter, offering both a numerical rating as well as example tweets that could be seen as harassing."
The solution is interesting to me on two levels.

One, it purports to use a technology solution rather than human labor to address the issue of online harassment.

Two, the thinking seems to be that notifying people that they might be engaging in harassment might then change their behavior.  The assumption seems to be that at least some people engage in harassment without knowing they engage in harassment.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sorry.

I just reckon that many people who harass others online know they're about to harass someone. That, in fact, is the point.

So, I wonder what the psychological basis behind this solution is. Is the app meant to address the behavior of those who are unaware that they are about to harass someone? I mean, I do suspect there are, also, some people who harass unintentionally or unknowingly. For such people, I think, an app could possibly deter harassment.

For intentional harassers, probably not so much?

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