As you may know, I’ve been working on the Predator Alert Tool for Facebook, the next in my series of projects designed to graft anti-rape culture features into the architecture of major social networking and dating websites. This tool works in much the same way as the Preferred Gender Pronouns for Facebook app I recently wrote, in that there are two parts to it.
The first is a Facebook app where you can share about an experience you had of some consent-violating behavior by another Facebook user. It looks something like this:
The second is a browser userscript that works very much like the Predator Alert Tool for OkCupid. With the Predator Alert Tool for Facebook userscript installed, your web browser automatically searches for any stories about the people who show up on your timeline and newsfeed. If it finds any, it “red-boxes” links to their profile, as shown in the screenshot above. When you hover over the red-boxed links, a link that reads “View…PAT-FB stories” appears, along with Facebook’s normal pop up, which takes you to the list of reports you can view about that person.
Both of these pieces work independently. You can use the Predator Alert Tool for Facebook app inside Facebook without ever installing the userscript in your browser, and you can use the browser userscript without ever allowing the Facebook app access to your Facebook account. (However, this means you’ll only be able to view shared stories if they are public, not friends-only or other visibility-restricted stories.)
Both of these tools are still in closed alpha testing, which means they’re only available to certain test users. Development is happening in public. In fact, every line of code for every Predator Alert Tool is released into the public domain forever. No one can claim any copyright over this software, ever. If you’d like to help test these tools before they’re generally available to the public, please consider becoming a tester by following the instructions on this post.
Also, I need y’all to know that while I’ve been working on this app, my car broke down and left me stranded in Baltimore for a week with a steep repair bill. I’ve been hopping from one house to another in order to find shelter and Wi-Fi so I can continue to work on this. (Here’s a picture of my current workspace.) If you can afford to do so, I could really, really, really use your support through donations of food or money now. Donate at Cyberbusking.org. Thanks.
See also: Predator Alert Tool for FetLife.