Mozilla Releases Firefox Extension to Shield Women From 'Hate Speech'

A great swathe of the internet is positive, a place where people come together to collaborate on ideas, discuss news and share moments of levity and sorrow, too. But there’s also a dark side, where comments, threads and DMs are peppered with ugly, hostile language designed to intimidate and harass. Women online, especially women who are outspoken in any field — journalism, tech, government, science, and so on — know this all too well.

What’s the solution? People being less terrible, obviously. Until we reach that stage of human maturity, the B!tch to Boss extension for Firefox can help by replacing words like “bitch”, often used in derogatory comments and messages directed at women, with the word “boss”.

[...] Mozilla is committed to an internet that promotes civil discourse, human dignity and individual expression. A person’s sex or gender shouldn’t determine their access, opportunities or quality of experience online. Will the B!tch to Boss extension solve the problem of hostility and hate speech directed at women online? No, but it will make some insults sting less so we can all get on with making the internet a better place for everyone.

Mitchell Baker, Mozilla's top executive, was paid $2.4m in 2018, a sum I personally think of as instant inter-generational wealth. Payments to Baker have more than doubled in the last five years.

As far as I can find, there is no UK-based NGO whose top executive makes more than £1m ($1.3m) a year. The UK certainly has its fair share of big international NGOs - many much bigger and more significant than Mozilla.