Facebook launches new anti-harassment tools to prevent unwanted messages and friend requests

Ignored: People will be able to ignore unwanted conversations on the Messenger app
Facebook
Ella Wills20 December 2017

Facebook has announced new features targeted at preventing harassment on its site and Messenger platform.

The new tools will "proactively recognise" when a blocked contact tries to get in touch with someone on Facebook through a new account.

People will also be able to filter out unwanted conversations on the Messenger app without having to block the sender, and be able to read messages without alerting the sender.

The move has been hailed by human rights groups as "welcome steps forward to improve online safety" for survivors of domestic abuse.

Facebook has announced new features to improve safety for victims of online abuse 
PA

Facebook will now use signals, such as an IP address, to identify fake accounts more quickly in order to prevent its owner from contacting a person who has previously blocked them.

On the new harassment prevention tools, Facebook's global head of safety Antigone Davis said: "We've heard stories from people who have blocked someone only to encounter the same harasser using a different account.

"In order to help prevent those bad encounters, we are building on existing features that prevent fake and inauthentic accounts on Facebook.

"These automated features help us identify fake accounts more quickly and block millions of them at registration every day. However, sometimes a new account created by someone who was previously blocked might not get caught by these features.

"We are now using various signals - like an IP address - to help us proactively recognise this type of account and prevent its owner from sending a message or friend request to the person who blocked the original account.

"The person who blocked the original account is in control, and must initiate contact with the new account in order for them to interact normally."

Additionally, updates to the Messenger app will allow people to ignore and filter out conversations with accounts they do not wish to interact with without having to block them.

"If someone is being harassed, blocking the abuser sometimes prompts additional harassment, particularly offline," Ms Davis said.

The social media giant will act more quickly to stop fake accounts approaching people on its site
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

"We've also heard from groups that work with survivors of domestic violence that being able to see messages is often a valuable tool to assess if there is risk of additional abuse.

"Now, you can tap on a message to ignore the conversation. This disables notifications and moves the conversation from your inbox to your Filtered Messages folder. You can read messages in the conversation without the sender seeing if they've been read.

"This feature is now available for one-on-one conversations and will soon be available broadly for group messages too."

Katie Ghose, chief executive of charity Women's Aid, said she hoped other social media platforms would implement similar tools.

"We have long been calling for technology companies to consider how new platforms or features can be exploited by perpetrators to abuse and control their victims," she said.

"These are welcome steps forward to improve online safety, and we hope that other online platforms and technology companies follow suit to protect survivors and tackle perpetrators of domestic abuse head on."

The announcement came as executives from the social network, as well as Twitter and Google, were heavily criticised by MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.

The technology firms were accused of profiting from hateful content on their platforms, and failing to effectively act in the removal of abusive content.

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