Comedian Leslie Jones has been in the headlines a lot this week. You’d think it’s because she’s starring as one of four women in a modernized reboot of the beloved “Ghostbuster” movies. But no — Jones, who is the only black cast member of the film, is in the news because she has received countless hate-filled, racist slurs and attacks.
As a way to expose her harassers, she tweeted at some of the worst offenders.
“You have to hate yourself to put out that type of hate,” Jones tweeted in response. “I mean on my worst day I can’t think of this type of hate to put out.”
You have to hate yourself to putout that type of hate. I mean on my worst day I can't think of this type of hate to put out.
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
She eventually closed her own account, and Twitter has shut down the account of at least one of the perpetrators.
Social media platforms and comments sections have long been a cesspool of the worst humanity has to offer. And former Google employee Bindu Reddy wants to do something to fix it. She is creating an anonymous social media platform with a zero tolerance for hate speech.
Read More: 17 Badass Women to Follow on Instagram
Reddy has worked on projects such as Google+, the network Blogger, and started a management system called MyLikes. Now she has enlisted the help of former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong to help her create this platform.
Anonymous social networks are not a new idea. For example, YikYak, a popular mobile app that appeals to high school and college students, is notorious for inappropriate and mean anonymous posts.
And hate speech is definitely not limited to anonymous platforms.
Read More: #NoWomanEver enjoys being harassed
By taking a different approach to social media, Reddy hopes to create a platform that is inclusive and hate-free. The goal is to foster a social environment where people can’t just yell random thoughts, but rather share information and have intelligent conversations and discussion about a certain subject with one another.
"What we think is missing in this space is a place for someone to be your personalized newsfeed with information actually being shared in an unfiltered way," said Reddy.
Reddy said the idea came to her after sharing a controversial op-ed about hiring women just for the sake of hiring women. She received backlash from many readers, including those who are close to her. This initially made Reddy regret writing the post, but now she doesn’t let the backlash affect her. It became the motivation and inspiration behind a hate-free network.
Important and influential people don't speak their mind on the public internet for obvious reasons - Fear of negative consequences
— Bindu Reddy (@bindureddy) July 4, 2016
Read More: Pakistani Social Media Star Murdered in 'Honor Killing'
Facebook is another platform where people tend to voice their opinions and share nasty words, that scientists argue would not be spoken in person. Social media feeds the ego and encourages sharing things to maintain a certain image.
"You go to Facebook and you see stuff from everybody being shared," Reddy said. "But the problem with that is it’s stuff your friends think they’re supposed to share and less about actually what they want to share."
By making this new platform anonymous, this will eliminate the ego factor and allow users to post what they really think and feel about a certain topic. However, as great as this sounds, there are still concerns over internet trolls. To avoid this, Reddy has set three criteria: moderate abusive commentary; restrict all conversations to specific topic threads; and prevent people from creating a lasting anonymous persona.
By assigning a new avatar to users every time they log in and moderating through all comments made, Reddy believes this is going to be an opportunity to build social equality, something global citizens are already familiar with.
“Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that,” are the famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Let’s hope this sentiment can be translated into modern-day social media.