Mobile apps tap the crowds to fight street harassment - By Springwise.com

Some 80 to 90 percent of women have experienced harassment on the street, yet traditionally there's little they can do about it. That's the primary motivation behind Hollaback, a crowdsourcing project that aims to help victims fight back by sharing their stories online and using a mobile app to focus attention on the perpetrators.

Street harassment is what New York-based Hollaback calls a “gateway crime”, with implicit acceptance of it helping to legitimize other forms of gender-based violence. We've already seen a variety of initiatives spring up in Mexico in response to such abuse — including a women-only bus service and female-friendly taxis, for example — but Hollaback hopes to address the problem at a deeper level by publicly raising awareness about the issue.

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