Instagram will use artificial intelligence to detect bullying in photo

Instagram announced Tuesday it has begun using a new technology capable of detecting online bullying on photos, an initiative that highlights the efforts of high-tech companies to use artificial intelligence to moderate their platforms.

"While the majority of photos shared on Instagram are positive and bring joy to people, a nasty or unwelcome photo is sometimes shared," Adam Mosseri, the new Instagram director, said in a press release. . "We are now using machine learning technology to proactively detect bullying on photos and their captions and send them to our community operations team for review."

The parent company of Instagram, Facebook, has also introduced its own anti-bullying tools this month. These features allow users to remove "watch comments" from their feeds, with options to suppress or hide bulk comments and to post comments on behalf of the victim.

Social media companies are under pressure to better manage harassment and hate speech, a difficult challenge as many of them have millions of users. Facebook has hired thousands of people to review content that violates its rules.

Technology companies have also invested in specialized technologies to moderate their comments and publications, which is particularly difficult when it comes to processing photos. Facebook also uses specialized technology to detect hate speech in images, which creates a kind of arms race between the company and the people who publish shocking news.

Fiona Brown, head of wellness for communications at Instagram, said the new anti-bullying feature uses artificial intelligence to contextualize the image itself and brand it as harassment.

"It takes into account several signals from the photo itself and, if there is a legend, of the legend too," Brown explained. "An example of an intimidation tactic detected by photo technology is to compare, categorize and categorize images and captions, such as split-screen images where one person is negatively compared to another."

The platform technology update is designed to recognize and block bullying by targeting the app's posts that "many people who experience or observe bullying do not report".

Mosseri also announced the extension of the company's "Bullying Comment Filter", which now needs to analyze comments made during live video streaming, as well as a new feature called "Kindness Camera Effect" intended for to fight against the negativity diffused on the platform.

"While it's important to stop bullying, we also need to do more to celebrate and inspire the kindness on Instagram," says Mosseri.

In collaboration with Maddie Ziegler, a dancer and fervent advocate of bullying, Kindness Camera Effect encourages users to help their friends with their nice comments and filter overlays. While users who follow Ziegler will have the feature automatically installed, other users will have the option to click "try" to add it to the features of their camera built into the app.

"In selfie mode, hearts will fill the screen – and you'll be encouraged to identify a friend you want to support." Explains Mosseri. "Your friend will be notified that you have spoken about it in your story. They can share their story or use the camera effect to convey goodness to someone else.

Mosseri, who previously ran News Feed on Facebook, was announced at the head of Instagram in early October. Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced their departure from the company in September.

The companies launched their new features in early October, National Bullying Prevention Month.