Social Network Ask.fm To Increase Site Safety

The social network site Ask.fm is delivering on a promise to increase security on the site, giving users more control of their accounts and allowing them to block users who bully them with questions and online abuse, The Drum reports. The site is infamously known to be particularly bad for this type of cyber-bullying.

The new safety protocols were triggered by the suicides of some of the site’s users who were bullied on the network. Ilja and Mark Terebin, the Latvian brother duo who founded the site, started the network back in 2010 and are hoping that these new safety measures will put a stop to a lot of the criticisms the site receives for its poor user security.

The chief executive of Ask.fm, Doug Leeds, noted that the new usage policy put in place will “provide new and enhanced information to our users in important areas, such as how to block and report users or problematic content, how to disable the anonymous feature or block anonymous questions.” With around 180 million active monthly users, the site is very popular and these new measurements have been received positively. The site recently also moved from Latvia to Ireland, where the founder of the site is now based.

The site was recently taken over by IAC, the company which also owns Tinder, Vimeo and the Daily Beast. Leeds went on to note that general service on the site will not be affected and will remain unchanged, and that the new security changes will be available to everyone and not just those on the premium paid-for version. He concluded that the aim of these universal changes was to “empower the user base.”