Pushing back against her critics, First Lady Melania Trump said on Tuesday, March 20, she’s committed to fighting against cyberbullying.
“I have been criticized for my commitment to tackling this issue, and I know that will continue. But it will not stop me from doing what I know is right. I am here with one goal: helping children and our next generation,” she said.
Mrs. Trump made her comments as she convened with executives from major online and social media companies at the White House to discuss cyberbullying and internet safety.
The meeting came more than a year after she announced that cyberbullying would be her cause if Trump were elected president.
The choice was immediately assailed, but Mrs. Trump said she won’t back down.
She said she gets many letters from children who have been bullied or feel threatened on social media. She acknowledged that the issue has been studied for years, and told the executives she wants to hear “what you have learned, what has been accomplished, and what progress still needs to be made.”
“I believe together we can make a real difference in encouraging positive behaviors on social media,” she added.
Amazon, Snap, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft sent representatives, as did the Internet Association and the Family Online Safety Institute.
All the major technology companies have strict policies prohibiting harassment and other bullying behavior on their services, but primarily rely on users to report abuses and weed them out.
But the efforts so far have fallen short, leading to rampant abuses that even some of the companies acknowledge have driven away or tormented portions of their audience.
Harassment is widespread and extends beyond teenagers. A Pew Research Center poll last year found 41 percent of U.S. adults believed they had been harassed online.
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