17.6. Stopping Harassment?

So how can platforms and individuals stop themselves from being harassed?

Well, individuals can block or mute harassers, but the harassers may be a large group, or they might make new accounts.

They might also try to use the legal system, but online harassment is often not taken seriously, and harassers often use tactics that avoid being illegal.

The platform itself sometimes can be helpful. Reporting harassment might result in the user being banned, or the platform might decide to take out entire problematic sections, such as when Reddit banned its most toxic subreddits, and found it reduced toxic behavior on the site overall.

There are also other tools to help individuals that are getting harassment from a crowd. For example, the Twitter app “block-party” supports mass blocking and other advanced features.