Commitments

The Web Foundation is calling for companies to commit to solving a set of problems faced bythe most marginalized women on their platforms. The commitments focus on two key themes: Curation and Reporting. As evidenced throughout our multistakeholder consultations, women expressed a need for greater control over who can comment or reply to their posts, as well as more choice over what they see online, when they see it and how they see it. Women also repeatedly highlighted the need for improved reporting systems, so they can be better supported when they do receive violent or abusive content.

Rather than asking companies to implement solutions according to overly prescriptive criteria (recognizing that each platform has unique features and technical constraints), we are asking companies to focus on solving for the two most prevalent and prominent problems women face online. The four key considerations included with each commitment are not exhaustive but we are asking companies to"check" all four of these considerations, and also encourage you to commit to offering additional solutions that can help solve this set of problems.

We know that if we can solve problems facing these women, then we create a safer online experience for everyone.

Curation commitment

Build better ways for women to curate their safety online by:

1. Offering more granular settings (e.g. who can see, share, comment or reply to posts)
2. Using more simple and accessible language throughout the user experience
3. Providing easy navigation and access to safety tools
4. Reducing the burden on women by proactively reducing the amount of abuse they see
   

Reporting commitment

Implement improvements to reporting systems by:

1. Offering users the ability to track and manage their reports
2. Enabling greater capacity to address context and/or language
3. Providing more policy and product guidance when reporting abuse
4. Establish additional ways for women to access help and support during the reporting process
   

We’ll be measuring companies’ commitments against these three areas and will report annually on how tech companies have progressed in achieving these commitments:

Test

Explore and test the prototypes and solutions developed in the workshops.

Timebound

Ensure that solutions are addressed within a set and clear time frame.

Transparency

Regularly publish and share meaningful data and insights on your progress in implementing these commitments. The Web Foundation will work with stakeholders to establish standards for sharing data about instances of online gender-based violence on companies’ platforms, as well as appropriate processes for publishing the data.