Toxic behavior and harassment have been a grave concern lingering over the heads of females in general, and the Lgbtq community especially for a long time now. Add them to the cyber world, and the issue of harassment and condemn just skyrockets to no bounds.

Recently, Wikimedia announced several new measures to provide security from cyberbullying and harassing situations in the work environment that females and LGBTQ community members face.

There have been increasing complaints from females and LGBTQ volunteers that they are facing toxic behavior from the editor community around.

Also, there are several studies from the University of Washington and the New York Times, which highlight this valid and critical concern. It has been brought to the notice through these studies that many female editors and LGBTQ members fear for their safety, and do not find the work environment healthy and protective in any way. There are instances of increased bullying and all sorts of discriminating behaviors that affect their mental, emotional, and even physical wellbeing.

Some editors have also come forward to tell how insecure their male counterparts often get and how the work of female editors is often contested by male editors, which usually causes them to receive negative feedback or straightaway rejection.

Things have gone so bad for some transgender editors and volunteers on Wikipedia that they have even received death threats!

Now, the company behind Wikipedia is Wikimedia, and it has come up with several new measures to combat this situation and help its female employees and transgender volunteers on their platform. The company’s board of trustees has voted on some methods and steps that will be finalized by the end of this year.

The company is planning to implement these changes in two steps. First, there will a formal treaty and signed consent regarding the current rules and regulations about how editors behave with each other and about their general interactions.

Secondly, the company is going to make sure that these rules are not broken but will also ensure serious ramifications in case they are not taken care of by the employees.

Wikimedia is not the only company that has taken some steps to address this crucial problem. Recently, YouTube has also announced to introduce some new features to help control the hateful comments and cyber-harassment aimed especially towards the LGBTQ community.

A famous YouTuber has recently elaborated on the various ways he and his community become targets of extreme hatred, bordering to posing an imminent threat to their privacy and safety.

So, YouTube is now letting these YouTubers to limit the reach of their videos and content especially meant for their communities, so they do not receive hateful comments from other people.

Secondly, these YouTubers are going to get a feature through which they can hold the comments from the viewers for manual reviewing. In that way, they can filter whatever junk they can before it all comes in front of the public.

And thirdly, YouTube is going to let these YouTubers to post their content on a specially designed platform of experienced reviewers before publishing their videos on their channels.

So, it is good to know that these tech apps and sites are taking this concern very seriously and trying to find ways to help their community members as much as possible.



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