The Mozilla Foundation, creators of the Firefox web browser, has introduced a new browser extension that automatically replaces “hostile comments directed at women” with the word “boss” across the internet.
Dubbed the “b!tch to boss” extension, the tool automatically replaces words like “bitch,” “slut,” and “nasty woman” (the latter of which attracted left-wing outrage after then-candidate Donald Trump used it to describe Hillary Clinton during a presidential debate) with the word “boss” when enabled on Firefox browsers.
Mozilla describes its tool as a means to fight “ugly, hostile language designed to intimidate and harass.”
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”.
Later in the press release, Mozilla admits that men actually report experiencing more “online harassment” than women do, but that women are more upset by it.
Recent Pew Research data from January 2021 shows that online abuse is getting more severe and more common. While the share of men and women experiencing online harassment is comparable (men: 43%, women: 38%), the severity of it is far greater for women. Some 14% of men targeted in online harassment say that the most recent incident they experienced was very or extremely upsetting, whereas 33% of women, more than double that of men, said the same.
The Mozilla Foundation is known for its far-left political culture. In 2019, Firefox banned Gab’s free-speech focused browser extension, which added a comments section to every website on the web.
Mozilla infamously forced out its CEO, Brendan Eich, after news emerge that he opposed gay marriage in 2008. Eich went on to found the privacy-focused Brave web browser, which is experiencing rapid growth.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.
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